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Henri Poincare Quotes about Nature

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If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living

If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living

Henri Poincare
Beautiful, Nature, Knowing
Henri Poincare (2012). “The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare”, p.318, Modern Library

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it, and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing, and life would not be worth living. I am not speaking, of course, of the beauty which strikes the senses, of the beauty of qualities and appearances. I am far from despising this, but it has nothing to do with science. What I mean is that more intimate beauty which comes from the harmonious order of its parts, and which a pure intelligence can grasp.

Henri Poincare
Life, Beautiful, Nature
"Science and Method". Book by Henri Poincaré, translated by Francis Maitland. Part I, Chapter 1: "The Selection of Facts", p. 22, 1914.

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.

Henri Poincare
Nature, Philosophical, Science

A scientist worthy of his name, about all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature.

Henri Poincare
Nature, Work, Math
"Henri Poincaré, Critic of Crisis: Reflections on His Universe of Discourse". Book by Tobias Dantzig, p. 8, 1954.

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