Statistics Quotes

First, an introduction. When writing, I tend to write directly by academic standards. I also try to write with good examples, white space, and patient pace. I consider this a good thing, and a lot of it comes from my work experience. Here's another interesting perspective, quoted from a New York Times Book Review article by Patricia Limerick, 31 October 1993.

Ten years ago, I [P. Limerick] heard a classics professor say the single most important thing, in my opinion, that anyone has said about professors. "We must remember," he declared, "that professors are the ones nobody wanted to dance with in high school." This is an insight that lights up the universe, or at least the university. It is a proposition that helps to explain the problem of academic writing. What one sees in professors, repeatedly, is exactly the manner that anyone would adopt after a couple of sad evenings sidelined under the crepe-paper streamers in the gym, sitting on a folding chair while everyone else danced. Dignity, for professors, perches precariously on how well they can convey this message: "I am immersed in some very important thoughts, which unsophisticated people could not even begin to understand. Thus, I would not want to dance, even if one of you unsophisticated people were to ask me."

This hurts, especially since I fall into the no-dance category, not attending my high school prom. And I am certainly guilty of writing excessively technical and cluttered statistical prose at times (although I have examples that are much, much worse.) It's something to remember when we write and speak about statistics, to not be so afraid as to neglect examples, or to retreat to excessive technicism when talking. Why can't a college educated person understand at least how the EM algorithm works? Why can't an advanced undergraduate or graduate read a statistics text without having to pause and rest every paragraph? It's a nontrivial issue. I want more than 60% of the introductory class to show up for lectures. I want people from the community to attend lecture series. I want hundreds of students flooding the regression courses. I want people to like statistics! So let me know what I can do about this.

Quotes about Statistics

"You haven't told me yet," said Lady Nuttal, "what it is your fiance does for a living." "He's a statistician," replied Lamia, with an annoying sense of being on the defensive.

Lady Nuttal was obviously taken aback. It had not occurred to her that statisticians entered into normal social relationships. The species, she would have surmised, was perpetuated in some collateral manner, like mules. "But Aunt Sara, it's a very interesting profession," said Lamia warmly.

"I don't doubt it," said her aunt, who obviously doubted it very much. "To express anything important in mere figures is so plainly impossible that there must be endless scope for well-paid advice on how to do it. But don't you think that life with a statistician would be rather, shall we say, humdrum?"

Lamia was silent. She felt reluctant to discuss the surprising depth of emotional possibility which she had discovered below Edward's numerical veneer. "It's not the figures themselves," she said finally, "it's what you do with them that matters."
The Undoing of Lamia Gurdleneck, K. A. C. Manderville

A witty statesman said, you might prove anything by figures. Carlyle

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Benjamin Disraeli, but sometimes Mark Twain. Quoted in the article about bad statistics.

I have a great subject [statistics] to write upon, but feel keenly my literary incapacity to make it easily intelligible without sacrificing accuracy and thoroughness. Sir Francis Galton
See my comments on Galton on the statistics page. Galton overestimates the difficulty; see above.

Statistics are elusive things at best, and it is a truism that almost anything can be proved by them. Judge J Smith Henly, Maxwell v Bishop, 1966

Last updated: August 2003. I'm not particularly exact about time normally, so why start now?