What is your favorite statistical quote?
This is community wiki, so please one quote per answer.
158 Answers
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This is unlikely to be a popular quote, but anyway,
If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.
Ernest Rutherford
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$\begingroup$ I think it is really popular.... but not it statistic (we don't want to loose our job because physisics are improving their experiment :) ). Anyway I think Rutherford belongs to this class of spiritual scientist... +1 $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 9, 2010 at 12:32
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8$\begingroup$ I think this quote means that the results of the experiment should be "obvious", and statistics just lets one put a precise figure as to "just how obvious". The word needs is the key. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 10:56
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2$\begingroup$ I thought this was the tagline for Mythbusters... $\endgroup$– JMSCommented May 27, 2011 at 20:31
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2$\begingroup$ I really like this quote, for me it is clear that it is not a joke (@KalEl). This recalls that most often it is not the data that talks but the experiment, standard deviations are here to confirm that your experiment is talking loud. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 7:07
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1$\begingroup$ It really says experimental design is the most important branch of statistics to experimental science. $\endgroup$– ClarkCommented Feb 13, 2019 at 0:12
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Those who ignore Statistics are condemned to reinvent it.
-- Brad Efron
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$\begingroup$ Do you think that by "those" he means "everyone" ? what was the context of this citation ? it seems a bit strong like this :) $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 30, 2010 at 12:42
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8$\begingroup$ I would go one step further, within statistics. Those who ignore Bayesian statistics are condemned to reinvent it. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 11:08
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$\begingroup$ If anybody is looking for a source of this statement, it's attributed to Efron in this article (without source there though): doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-5823.2001.tb00474.x $\endgroup$– PhilCommented Jan 2, 2020 at 11:35
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Figures don't lie, but liars do figure
--Mark Twain
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2$\begingroup$ I don't get what is so deep in that one, is it only playing with words ? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 3, 2010 at 19:29
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$\begingroup$ I like to think of it as the statisticians equivalent of "guns don't kill people, people kill people" not very deep, but important to realise from time to time $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 4, 2010 at 9:17
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$\begingroup$ So it's an inane platitude used for quibbling over semantics? "Cigarettes don't cause cancer; people cause cancer." "Landmines don't maim people; people maim people." $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 5, 2010 at 0:36
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4$\begingroup$ well... there is a fine line between inane platitude and profound wisdom. I like the quote for it's poetic quality. Any insight is of secondary importance to me. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 5, 2010 at 7:25
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1$\begingroup$ Does Twain qualify as a statistician? $\endgroup$– Glen_bCommented Nov 3, 2012 at 7:00
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4
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7$\begingroup$ Surely it is, as long as the anecdotes aren't sampled with bias? $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 3, 2012 at 6:38
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1$\begingroup$ @naught101 Please provide an example? $\endgroup$– JaseCommented Nov 21, 2012 at 10:15
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3$\begingroup$ @Jase: an anecdote is a chunk of information that is true, but may not be representative of the truth (i.e. it's biased toward the point that the story teller is trying to make). But that doesn't say anything about multiple anecdotes. If you could show that the biases in each anecdote in a set were independent, then they would probably cancel to some extent, allowing reliable analysis. Of course, this is a stupidly inefficient way of collecting data, and because it would be so difficult, there are no examples, because no-one has ever done it. And I was mostly just being a smart arse :D $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 21, 2012 at 10:23
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4$\begingroup$ I would think that anecdotes are fundamentally biased: They caught the attention of someone, and caused emotions that made him remember it. There is no way human attention can be statistically independent, I assume. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 3, 2015 at 16:09
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"It is easy to lie with statistics. It is hard to tell the truth without statistics." - Andrejs Dunkels
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$\begingroup$ The best antidote to "...lies, damned lies, and statistics." $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 18, 2010 at 10:44
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$\begingroup$ depending on what you call 'the thruth'... I don't think I give so much value to statistical truth :) $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 30, 2010 at 12:39
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$\begingroup$ I think it's a great one (I think it goes well with - "no models are true, some are useful") $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 2:27
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…the statistician knows…that in nature there never was a normal distribution, there never was a straight line, yet with normal and linear assumptions, known to be false, he can often derive results which match, to a useful approximation, those found in the real world.
George Box (JASA, 1976, Vol. 71, 791-799)
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"The first time I was in a statistics course, I was there to teach it"
John Tukey (link)
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4$\begingroup$ He's not the only one--and that's not necessarily a good thing. $\endgroup$– whuber ♦Commented May 18, 2012 at 17:00
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10$\begingroup$ Haha, true. Tukey gets a pass though! $\endgroup$ Commented May 18, 2012 at 17:57
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"To find out what happens when you change something, it is necessary to change it.”
Box, Hunter, and Hunter, Statistics for Experimenters (1978).
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7$\begingroup$ Tell that to the theoretical physics community... $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 3, 2012 at 6:41
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The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.
-- Kurt Tucholsky, in: Französischer Witz, 1925
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8$\begingroup$ According to Wikiquote it is misattributed to Joseph Stalin; the origin is Kurt Tucholsky: en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin#Misattributed $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 7, 2010 at 0:36
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$\begingroup$ Here is the (so far much more likely) source: Französischer Witz by Kurt Tucholsky dating back to 1925: »Der Krieg? Ich kann das nicht so schrecklich finden! Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!« (German original) $\endgroup$– gwrCommented Dec 5, 2015 at 15:56
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We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge.
Rutherford D. Roger
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The statistician cannot evade the responsibility for understanding the process he applies or recommends.
-– Sir Ronald A. Fisher
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1$\begingroup$ I cannot believe this does not have ten times the upvotes! As an epidemiologist with a good (as far as people tell me...) grasp of statistics, I believe that's my most important "asset": understanding both the epidemiological question and the statistical technique, and matching those correctly to each other... $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 13, 2020 at 11:02
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I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians. And I'm not kidding.
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$\begingroup$ I guess Val Harian is not a statistician if he is not kidding... what is a sexy job ? for me it is like the sitation with the sword of the century... fun but a bit trivial :) $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 12, 2010 at 7:58
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2$\begingroup$ This needs to be corrected. It was Hal Varian that said it. nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html $\endgroup$– vqvCommented Dec 20, 2010 at 4:23
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4$\begingroup$ in what year did he write this? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 29, 2012 at 9:43
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3$\begingroup$ @Leo: He didn't write it; he said it (at the link provided by vqv). It was only a couple of years ago, so, you still have time. ;-) $\endgroup$– cardinalCommented Mar 29, 2012 at 11:57
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The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.
-- John Tukey
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60% of the time, it works every time.
-Brian Fantana
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2$\begingroup$ for the uninitiated: youtube.com/watch?v=zLq2-uZd5LY $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 9:18
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"The Central Limit Theorem is about the journey and the Strong Law of Large Numbers is about the destination." stats.SE user cardinal in a comment on this question
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Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there’.
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There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
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20$\begingroup$ I hate this quote. It makes professions using statistics look like you could cheat. But, when someone profoundly uses statistics one knows that actually you cannot cheat. Because when provided with enough information about the statistical procedures used, one can draw a conclusion on the soundness of the procedures/results. If not enough information on the statistical (and other) procedures are provided, you should immediately question the results. $\endgroup$– HenrikCommented Jul 27, 2010 at 16:15
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5$\begingroup$ That would be true if everyone were knowledgeable enough in statistics to drive the correct conclusions. Alas, that quote is very applicable to many of those amusing human beings called politicians... $\endgroup$– nicoCommented Jul 29, 2010 at 11:22
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4$\begingroup$ Whoever said this had no basic understanding of Statistics, or he was joking. $\endgroup$– KalElCommented Aug 19, 2010 at 10:21
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11$\begingroup$ I think this quote is more of a cynical but realistic view of how statistical data is mostly used in debates (i.e. selected to support a preconceived notion rather than produced to test a hypothesis) $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 7, 2010 at 9:12
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7$\begingroup$ There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies and fake statistics. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 13, 2010 at 22:01
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My thesis is simply this: probability does not exist. - Bruno de Finetti
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The primary product of a research inquiry is one or more measures of effect size, not p values.
Cohen, J. (1990). Things I have learned (so far). American Psychologist, 45, 1304-1312.
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"Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence."
Often attributed to Carl Sagan, but he was paraphrasing sceptic Marcello Truzzi. Doubtless the concept is even more ancient.
David Hume said, "A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence".
One could argue this is not a quote about statistics. However, applied statistics is ultimately in the business of evaluating the quality of evidence for or against some proposition.
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This one is brand new, and Allen Wilcox is an epidemiologist, not a statistician, but whatever, I'm running with it.
Data do not speak for themselves - they need context, and they need skeptical evaluation
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6$\begingroup$ I am upvoting this because a minor variation is so apt for our site: "Your data/output/code/formula do not speak for themselves: they need context and they need sceptical evaluation." $\endgroup$– whuber ♦Commented Aug 4, 2015 at 14:48
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Without data you're just another person with an opinion. -- W. Edwards Deming
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$\begingroup$ Is there a source available for this quote? I've seen it being quoted on the net, but I have not found a source for where Deming would have said or written this. $\endgroup$– PhilCommented Mar 5, 2020 at 11:00
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While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will be up to, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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$\begingroup$ Clearly this person doesn't quite grasp the power of combinatorial calculations. Normal distributions appear because they are easy to realise. $\endgroup$ Commented May 22, 2015 at 0:31
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It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
Mark Twain (okay, so he's not a statistician)
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1$\begingroup$ Google finds 12.3 million hits for this quotation. After running down the first eight pages of them, I haven't found a single site that actually gives a source--they all seem to be quoting each other rather than Mr. Twain. Does anyone know where he wrote this? Or maybe it's apocryphal. $\endgroup$– whuber ♦Commented Nov 8, 2010 at 14:05
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2$\begingroup$ Heh, it was also used in the beginning of "The Big Short": imdb.com/title/tt1596363 ( filmcomment.com/blog/deep-focus-the-big-short ) $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 17, 2016 at 21:07
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$\begingroup$ I am almost sure that this is from "Huckleberry Finn." Ain't it? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 1:25
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$\begingroup$ Late to the party here, but see this link: quoteinvestigator.com/2018/11/18/know-trouble $\endgroup$– PhilCommented Jan 2, 2020 at 11:32
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If I can't picture it, I can't understand it.
-Albert Einstein
I acknowledge that Einstein wasn't a statistician. However, Michael Friendly uses this quote in arguing for a greater role for visualizations in data analysis. I share that goal, and I think the quote works nicely.
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2$\begingroup$ +1 That's a nice one. The funny thing is this, sometimes people can picture it (make or see a plot of something) and still not understand it. :) $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 0:44
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This is my favourite:
"To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.”
by Ashleigh Brilliant
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An ecologist is a statistician who likes to be outside.
-- apparently a good friend of Murray Cooper.
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When I see articles with lots of significance tests, I say that the statisticians are p-ing on the research.
Herman Friedmann (by recollection, he said this in class)
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$\begingroup$ Who's Hermann Friedmann? I've tried searching for him, but couldn't find anything... $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 29, 2016 at 22:48
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May I add this one, because I like Jan's contributions to psychometrics and statistics...
Causal interpretation of the results of regression analysis of observational data is a risky business. The responsibility rests entirely on the shoulders of the researcher, because the shoulders of the statistical technique cannot carry such strong inferences.
Jan de Leeuw, homepage