The Value of Science Quotes

“Deviner avant de démontrer! Ai-je besoin de rappeler que c'est ainsi que se sont faites toutes les découvertes importantes.

Guessing before proving! Need I remind you that it is so that all important discoveries have been made?”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“En un mot, pour tirer la loi de l'expérience, if faut généraliser; c'est une nécessité qui s'impose à l'observateur le plus circonspect.

In one word, to draw the rule from experience, one must generalize; this is a necessity that imposes itself on the most circumspect observer.”
― Henri Poincare, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“La pensée n'est qu'un écliar au milieu d'une longue nuit. Mais c'est cet éclair qui est tout.

Thought is only a flash in the middle of a long night. But this flash means everything.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“The philosophers make still another objection: "What you gain in rigour," they say, "you lose in objectivity. You can rise toward your logical ideal only by cutting the bonds which attach you to reality. Your science is infallible, but it can only remain so by imprisoning itself in an ivory tower and renouncing all relation with the external world. From this seclusion it must go out when it would attempt the slightest application.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science

“Qu'une goutee de vin tombe dans un verre d'eau; quelle que soit la loi du movement interne du liquide, nous verrons bientôt se colorer d'une teinte rose uniforme et à partir de ce moment on aura beau agiter le vase, le vin et l'eau ne partaîtront plus pouvoir se séparer. Tout cela, Maxwell et Boltzmann l'ont expliqué, mais celui qui l'a vu plus nettement, dans un livre trop peu lu parce qu'il est difficile à lire, c'est Gibbs dans ses principes de la Mécanique Statistique.

Let a drop of wine fall into a glass of water; whatever be the law that governs the internal movement of the liquid, we will soon see it tint itself uniformly pink and from that moment on, however we may agitate the vessel, it appears that the wine and water can separate no more. All this, Maxwell and Boltzmann have explained, but the one who saw it in the cleanest way, in a book that is too little read because it is difficult to read, is Gibbs, in his Principles of Statistical Mechanics.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“The aim of Mathematical Physics is not only to facilitate for the physicist the numerical calculation of certain constants or the integration of certain differential equations. It is besides, it is above all, to reveal to him the hidden harmony of things in making him see them in a new way.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“Pure analysis puts at our disposal a multitude of procedures whose infallibility it guarantees; it opens to us a thousand different ways on which we can embark in all confidence; we are assured of meeting there no obstacles; but of all these ways, which will lead us most promptly to our goal? Who shall tell us which to choose? We need a faculty which makes us see the end from afar, and intuition is this faculty. It is necessary to the explorer for choosing his route; it is not less so to the one following his trail who wants to know why he chose it.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science

“Derrière la série de Fourier, d'autres séries analogues sont entrées dans la domaine de l'analyse; elles y sont entrees par la même porte; elles ont été imaginées en vue des applications.

After the Fourier series, other series have entered the domain of analysis; they entered by the same door; they have been imagined in view of applications.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“Mathematics have a triple aim. They must furnish an instrument for the study of nature. But that is not all: they have a philosophic aim and, I dare maintain, an aesthetic aim. They must aid the philosopher to fathom the notions of number, of space, of time. And above all, their adepts find therein delights analogous to those given by painting and music. They admire the delicate harmony of numbers and forms; they marvel when a new discovery opens to them an unexpected perspective; and has not the joy they thus feel the aesthetic character, even though the senses take no part therein? Only a privileged few are called to enjoy it fully, it is true, but is not this the case for all the noblest arts?”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“El hombre de ciencia no estudia la naturaleza porque sea útil; la estudia porque encuentra placer, y encuentra placer porque es bella. Si la naturaleza no fuera bella, no valdría la pena conocerla, ni valdría la pena vivir la vida. No hablo aquí, entendámoslo bien, de esta belleza que impresiona los sentidos, de la belleza de las cualidades y de las apariencias; no es que la desdeñe, lejos de ahí, pero no tiene nada que ver con la ciencia. Quiero hablar de esa belleza, más íntima, que proviene del orden armonioso de las partes y que sólo una inteligencia pura puede comprender. Por así decirlo es ella la que da un cuerpo, un esqueleto a las halagadoras apariencias que embellecen nuestros sentidos, y sin este soporte, la belleza de estos sueños fugitivos sería imperfecta, porque sería indecisa y huiría siempre”
― Henri Poincaré, La Valeur de la Science

“Only Science and Art make civilization worth-while. One may be startled by the formula: Science for the sake of Science; and yet, it is worth as much as Life for Life's sake, if life is but misery; and even as Happiness for Happiness' sake, unless one believes that all pleasures are the same in quality, unless one is ready to admit that the goal of civilization is to furnish alcohol to all who love to drink.
All actions have goals. We must suffer, we must work, we must pay for our seats at the show. But, we pay that we may see, or that, at least, others may see some day.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare

“  Cependant quelquefois la vérité nous effraye.”
― Henri Poincaré, valeur de la science, La

“  La recherche de la vérité doit être le but de notre activité ; c'est la seule fin qui soit digne d'elle. Sans doute nous devons d'abord nous efforcer de soulager les souffrances humaines, mais pourquoi  ?”
― Henri Poincaré, valeur de la science, La