Quotes about statistics

Like other occult techniques of divination, the statistical method has a private jargon deliberately contrived to obscure its methods from non-practitioners.

— G. O. Ashley

Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment.

— Jean Baudrillard

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

— Henry Clay

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

— Benjamin Disraeli

I could prove God statistically.

— George Gallup

Round numbers are always false.

— Samuel Johnson

Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

— Fletcher Knebel

He used statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts; for support rather than illumination.

— Andrew Lang

I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.

— Ronald Reagan

A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.

— Joseph Stalin

There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up, and the kind you make up.

— Rex Stout

Statistically, the probability of any of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in contented dazzlement of surprise.

— Lewis Thomas

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

— Mark Twain

Often statistics are used as a drunken man uses lamp posts... for support rather than illumination.

— Source Unknown