“It is only through science and art that civilization is of value.”

—  Henri Poincaré , book The Value of Science

Some have wondered at the formula: science for its own sake; an yet it is as good as life for its own sake, if life is only misery; and even as happiness for its own sake, if we do not believe that all pleasures are of the same quality...
Every act should have an aim. We must suffer, we must work, we must pay for our place at the game, but this is for seeing's sake; or at the very least that others may one day see.
Source: The Value of Science (1905), Ch. 11: Science and Reality

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Henri Poincaré 49
French mathematician, physicist, engineer, and philosopher … 1854–1912

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