Resource Library

I can prove anything by statistics except the truth is a quote by British politician George Canning (1770 - 1827). The quote is found on page 587 of the 1908 book "Dictionary of Thoughts" edited by Tryon Edwards. The quote may be used to illustrate the idea that statistical inference is often geared toward demonstrating what is unlikely to be true rather than proving what is true.

Statistics are to baseball what a flaky crust is to Mom's apple pie. is a quote by American television journalist Harry Reasoner (1923 - 1991). The quote was said in a story on the news magazine show, "60 minutes."

The true logic of this world is the calculus of probabilities. This is a quote of Scottish physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell (1831 - 1879). The quote is found on page 197 in volume 1 of "The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, (James Clerk Maxwell and Peter Michael Harman, ed.)".

In earlier times they had no statistics and so they had to fall back on lies. This is a quote by Canadian economist Stephen Leacock (1869 - 1944). The quote is found on page 265 of his 1938 book "In Model Memoirs and Other Sketches from Simple to Serious"

This joke can be used in a discussion of how sample size affects the reliability of the sample mean. The joke may be found amongst the extensive Science Jokes resources at www.newyorkscienceteacher.com

Avoid Linear extrapolation ... The turkey's first 1000 days are a seemingly unending succession of gradually improving circumstances confirmed by daily experience. What happens on Day 1001? Thanksgiving. The quote is by John E. Sener (1954 - ) of Sener Learning services found in the on-line article "Strategies for Effective `20/20 Vision` -- #1: Avoid Linear Extrapolation" at www.senerlearning.net/?q=node/176. The quote is paraphrasing the turkey metaphor made famous by Bertrand Russell and Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Inside every nonBayesian there is a Bayesian struggling to get out. is a quote by British Bayesian Statistician Dennis V. Lindley (1923- ). The quote is also cited on page 497 of E.T. Jaynes 2003 book "Probability Theory: The Logic of Science".

This short article begins with a brief explanation of 3D barcodes (what they are and how they are used), and then provides an argument for why statistics should be studied and how statistics is a part of everyday life. Several links are shared for other resources related to teaching and learning statistics, in addition to a link to a career options in statistics.

I bet on a horse at ten-to-one. It didn't come in until half-past five. is a quote by comedian and violinist Henny Youngman (1906 - 1998).

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cock-sure of many things that were not so. is a quote of American Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841 - 1935). The quote is found in an article written by Justice Holmes in 1918 for the "Harvard Law Review" v. 32, page 40. The quote is also found in the book "Statistically Speaking, a Dictionary of Quotations" by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.