Doubt everything or believe everything: these are two equally convenient strategies. With either we dispense with the need for reflection.

More from Jules Henri Poincaré

• It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.
• Accept loss forever
• A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Essays, "Character," 1844
• A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.