Henri Poincare Quotes
Just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts. Mathematical discoveries, small or great are never born of spontaneous generation. Mathematicians are born, not made. Mathematicians do not study objects, but relations between objects. Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things. Need we add that mathematicians themselves are not infallible? No more than these machines need the mathematician know what he does. One would have to have completely forgotten the history of science so as to not remember that the desire to know nature has had the most constant and the happiest influence on the development of mathematics. Point set topology is a disease from which the human race will soon recover. Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. Science is facts. The mathematical facts worthy of being studied are those which, by their analogy with other facts, are capable of leading us to the knowledge of a physical law. The mind uses its faculty for creativity only when experience forces it to do so. The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything. Thus, they are free to replace some objects by others so long as the relations remain unchanged. To doubt everything, or, to believe everything, are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. To invent is to discern, to choose. What is it indeed that gives us the feeling of elegance in a solution, in a demonstration?
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