Henri Poincaré's quotes

Jules Henri Poincaré was one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Considered by many as the Last Universalist, a polymath.

 

“Thus, be it understood, to demonstrate a theorem, it is neither necessary nor even advantageous to know what it means . . . .”

 

"Guessing before proving! Need I remind you that it is so that all important discoveries have been made? "

 

"Analyse data just so far as to obtain simplicity and no further. "

 

"Mathematics has a threefold purpose. It must provide an instrument for the study of nature. But this is not all: it has a philosophical purpose, and, I daresay, an aesthetic purpose. "

 

"Chance ... must be something more than the name we give to our ignorance. "

 

"It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover."