Resource Library

Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write! Quote from the presidential address in 1951 of mathematical statistician Samuel S. Wilks (1906 - 1964) to the American Statistical Association found in "JASA",Vol. 46, No. 253., pp. 1-18. Wilks was paraphrasing Herbert G. Wells (1866 - 1946) from his book "Mankind in the Making". The full H.G. Wells quote reads: "The great body of physical science, a great deal of the essential fact of financial science, and endless social and political problems are only accessible and only thinkable to those who have had a sound training in mathematical analysis, and the time may not be very remote when it will be understood that for complete initiation as an efficient citizen of one of the new great complex worldwide States that are now developing, it is as necessary to be able to compute, to think in averages and maxima and minima, as it is now to be able to read and write."

Forecasting is very difficult, especially about the future. A quote of business economist Edgar R. Fiedler (1929 - 2003) found in "Across the Board", the magazine of The Conference Board, Inc. (June, 1977). The quote also appears in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.

The purpose of models is not to fit the data but to sharpen the questions. A quote of applied probabilist Samuel Karlin (1924 - 2007) from his Fisher memorial lecture April, 1983. The quote is found in "Statistically Speaking: a Dictionary of Quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.

I don't see the logic of rejecting data just because they seem incredible. A quote of British Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle (1915 - 2001) found in "Statistically Speaking - A Dictionary of Quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither (IOP publishing, 1996) p. 150.

It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young. A quote of Austrian animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz (1903 - 1989) in "On Aggression", (English translation: 1966, Harvest books) p. 12. Quote also found in "Statistically Speaking - a Dictionary of Quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither p. 119.

The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. A quote of English biologist Thomas H. Huxley (1825 - 1895) from his Presidential address in 1870 to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Published in "Biogenesis and Abiogenesis," vol. 8, Collected Essays (1894).

The plural of anecdote is not data. Attributed to American economist Roger E. Brinner in the on-line list of quotes at www.keypress.com/fathom/fathom1/quotes.html

... statistics - whatever their mathematical sophistication and elegance - cannot make bad variables into good ones. Quoted from "Analysis of Nominal Data" by H.T. Reynolds (Sage, 1984) p. 8

Data! Data! Data! he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." Stated by Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" by scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930)

That's not an experiment you have there, that's an experience. Ronald A. Fisher (1890-1962.) Quoted in "Statistics", third edition, by David Freedman, Robert Pisani, and Roger Purves (Norton, 1998)