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Time and Space … It is not nature which imposes them upon us, it is we who impose them upon nature because we find them convenient.

— Henri Poincaré The Value of Science (1905)

Le temps et l’espace... Ce n’est pas la nature qui nous les impose, c’est nous qui les imposons à la nature parce que nous les trouvons commodes.

Original text (French)

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More quotes by Henri Poincaré

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Science and Hypothesis (1901)

The very possibility of the science of mathematics seems an insoluble contradiction.

Science and Hypothesis (1901)

The essential characteristic of reasoning by recurrence is that it contains, condensed, so to speak, in a single formula, an infinity of syllogisms.

Science and Hypothesis (1901)

There is no science apart from the general. It may even be said that the very object of the exact sciences is to spare us these direct verifications.

Science and Hypothesis (1901)

It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover. To know how to criticize is good, to know how to create is better.

Science and Method (1908)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henri Poincaré (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.