The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.
-Jules Henri Poincare
Found this gem at the end of a wonderful book called The Prism and the Pendulum: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science by Robert P. Crease.
I love, I love, I love this depiction of a scientist's passion: life proved valuable by the beauty of truth and the possibility of its discovery.
image credit: Universite Nancy 2
