Karl Pearson, a 19th-century English mathematician, thought imagination was very important.
"All great scientists have, in a certain sense, been great artists; the man with no imagination may collect facts, but he cannot make great discoveries," Pearson said.
Among other things, Pearson imagined that someone who time traveled faster than the speed of light would go backwards in time, foreshadowing Brian Griffin's novel "Faster Than The Speed of Love."
He also wrote about antimatter, wrinkles in time and the fourth dimension. Pearson argued that we as observers influence how we experience physical laws.
If any of this sounds familiar, it might because these ideas showed up in Einstein's world-changing theories. What a coincidence that Einstein read his stuff, right? Small world.