A professor's enthusiasm for teaching introductory courses varies inversely with the likelihood of his having to do it. is a quote from the 1973 book "Malice in Blunderland" by American engineering professor Thomas Lyle Martin Jr.(1921-2009). The quote also appears in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.
It is better to be satisfied with probabilities than to demand impossibilities and starve. A quote attributed to German philosopher, poet, and dramatist Friedrich Schiller (1759 - 1805). The quote may also be found in "The New Book of Unusual Quotations" by Rudolf Flesch (Harper & Row, 1966)
There is no alchemy of probabilities that will change ignorance into knowledge. A quote by American psychologist Edwin G. Boring found in "The logic of the Normal Law of error in mental measurement" published in "The American Journal of Psychology" page 1, volume 31, 1920.
Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity. is a quote by ancient Greek philosopher Democritus (460 B.C.E. - 360 B.C.E.).
The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data. is a quote by English Mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871). The quote is found on page 119 of his book "On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures" (1832)
I think the essential thing if you want to be a good statistician, as opposed to being a mathematician, is to talk to people and find out what they're doing and why they're doing it. is a quote from Florence Nightingale David (1909 - 1993). The quote appears at the end of an interview published in "Statistical Science" in 1989 (p. 235-246) in response to a question from Nan Laird asking for advice for practicing statisticians.
This joke can be used to motivate class discussions on the assumptions underlying drawing conclusions from data (especially the assumption of stationarity). The joke is a revision of a story in "The Angel's Dictionary: A modern tribute to Ambrose Bierce" by Edmund Volkart - also quoted in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of Quotations" by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither (page 62). The revision (to make the story suitable for classroom use) was written by Dennis Pearl, The Ohio State University.
A cartoon to teach about confidence intervals. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University) in 2008. Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.