Statistics Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old statistics quotes, statistics sayings, and statistics proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

All statistics have outliers. Nenia Campbell
Statistics is the grammar of science. Karl Pearson
Statistics real contribution to society is primarily moral, not technical. Max Morris
Statistics in the hands of activists have power. Ela Bhatt
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable. Mark Twain
Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do not say. William W. Watt
Statisticians, like artists, have the bad habit of falling in love with their models. George Box
Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary a qualification for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write. H.G. Wells
Most people use statistics the way a drunkard uses a lamp post, more for support than illumination. Mark Twain
Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. Aaron Levenstein
One more fagot of these adamantine bandages is the new science of Statistics. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off. Paul Brodeur
In statistics, what disappears behind rows of numbers is death. Gunter Grass
Statistics, likelihoods, and probabilities mean everything to men, nothing to God. Richelle E. Goodrich
There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up. Rex Stout
Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination. Vin Scully
Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death. Hilaire Belloc
Statistics have shown that mortality increases perceptibly in the military during wartime. Alphonse Allais
Statistics are no substitute for judgment. Henry Clay
Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures. Evan Esar
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Carl Sagan
A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. Joseph Stalin
Statistics are like women; mirrors of purest virtue and truth, or like whores to use as one pleases. Theodor Billroth
The essential feature of statistics is a prudent and systematic ignoring of details. Erwin Schrodinger
Those who ignore Statistics are condemned to reinvent it. Brad Efron
The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see. John Tukey
Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment. Jean Baudrillard
Statistics can be made to prove anything - even the truth. Anonymous
Statistics are just a way for the mathematician to evangelize his faith. Hunter Brinkmeier
If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment. Ernest Rutherford