Henri Poincare Quotes

The theoretician believes in logic and believes that he despises dreams, intuition, and poetry. He does not recognize that these three fairies have only disguised themselves in order to dazzle him.... He does not know that he owes his greatest discoveries to them.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

Analysis I take to be a scientific procedure. What I do is creative. It doesn't spring from the same part of the mind.

I have discovered such wonderful things that I was amazed... Out of nothing I have created a strange new universe.

It is the function of creative man to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected.

Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how', while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.

Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.

A lot of times, you have an idea, and all the things you are thinking about might fuel it. But that's not where the idea came from.

You can't rush inspiration.

Common sense is a vastly overrated virtue. I myself prefer the spark of genius.

In my basic courses I have always tried to develop discovery and invention which, in my opinion, are the criteria of creativeness.

We are asking a really fundamental question whether thought can ever be creative. If thought is not the ground of creation then what is creation? Is love the only factor that is creative?

You have to have a lot of ideas. First, if you want to make discoveries, it's a good thing to have good ideas. And second, you have to have a sort of sixth sense-the result of judgment and experience-which ideas are worth following up. I seem to have the first thing, a lot of ideas, and I also seem to have good judgment as to which are the bad ideas that I should just ignore, and the good ones, that I'd better follow up.

When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something.

If you want to be creative, go where your questions lead you.

Curiosity is the key to creativity.

Anybody can have common sense, provided that they have no imagination.

There is something more important than logic: imagination

Creativity is contagious. And so is banality. Criticism is an art in itself. Don't let the dullness around destroy the creativity within. T.S. Eliot said, "honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry." Good to remember.

There is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap.

It is with logic that one proves; it is with intuition that one invents.