Henri Poincaré - The foundations of science

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Ethics and science have their own domain which touch but do not interpenetrate. The one shows us to what goal we should aspire, the other, given the goal, teaches us how to attain it. So they can never conflict since they can never meet. There can no more be immoral science than there can be scientific morals.

Henri Poincaré
We know not to what are due the accidental errors, and precisely because we do not know, we are aware they obey the law of Gauss. Such is the paradox.

Henri Poincaré
If there were no solid bodies in nature, there would be no geometry.

Henri Poincaré
The search for truth should be the goal of our activities; it is the sole end worthy of them.

Henri Poincaré
The stars send us not only that visible and gross light which strikes our bodily eyes, but from them also comes to us a light far more subtle, which illuminates our minds.

Henri Poincaré
It matters little whether the ether really exists; that is the affair of metaphysicians. The essential thing for us is that everything happens as if it existed......some day, no doubt, the ether will be thrown aside as useless.

Henri Poincaré
The scientific fact is only the crude fact translated into a convenient language.

Henri Poincaré
The firm determination to submit to experiment is not enough; there are still dangerous hypotheses; first, and above all, those which are tacit and unconscious. Since we make them without knowing it, we are powerless to abandon them.

Henri Poincaré
The very name calculus of probabilities is a paradox. Probability opposed to certainty is what we do not know, and how can we calculate what we do not know?

Henri Poincaré
It is often said that experiments must be made without preconceived idea. That is impossible. Not only would it make all experiment barren, but that would be attempted which could not be done.

Henri Poincaré
For a superficial observer, scientific truth is beyond the possibility of doubt; the logic of science is infallible, and if the scientists are sometimes mistaken, this is only from their mistaking its rules.

Henri Poincaré
To observe is not enough. We must use our observations, and to do that we must generalize.

Henri Poincaré