Statistics is a collection of numerical facts or measurements, as about people, business conditions, or weather. Inspirational statistics quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
If you’re searching for motivational science quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of inspiring math quotes, amazing economics quotes and famous astronomy quotes.
Famous Statistics Quotes
There are three kinds of truth: facts, evidence, and statistics. Benjamin Disraeli
The basic sample is the kind called random. It is selected by pure chance from the universe, a word by which the statistician means the whole of which the sample is a part. Darrell Huff
In God we trust; all others must bring data. W. Edwards Deming
Many statistics are false on its face. It gets by only because the magic of numbers brings about a suspension of common sense. Darrell Huff
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein
It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us in trouble. It’s the things we know that ain’t so Artemus Ward. Darrell Huff
The best thing about statistics is that they give you a good excuse for doing something else that benefits. Andrew Langdon
The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. Darrell Huff
A statistician made a few calculations and discovered that the chances of his being born were millions to one against. Keith Devlin
As Henry G. Felsen, a humorist and no medical authority, pointed out quite a while ago, proper treatment will cure a cold in seven days, but left to itself a cold will hang on for a week. Darrell Huff
If the statistics are boring, you’ve got the wrong numbers. Edward Tufte
What comes full of virtue from the statistician’s desk may find itself twisted, exaggerated, oversimplified, and distorted through selection by salesman, public relations expert, journalist, or advertising copywriter. Darrell Huff
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe that numbers never lie, and those who know better. Mark Twain
It is dangerous to mention any subject having high emotional content without hastily saying where you are for or agin it. Darrell Huff
Statistics in the hands of an activist have the greatest power.
To be worth much, a report based on sampling must use a representative sample, which is one from which every source of bias has been removed. That is where our Yale figure shows its worthlessness. It is also where a great many of the things you can read in newspapers and magazines reveal their inherent lack of meaning. Darrell Huff
A single statistic if gone wrong can be terribly misleading. Stephen Leacock
Permitting statistical treatment and the hypnotic presence of numbers and decimal points to befog causal relationships is little better than superstition. Darrell Huff
The secret of good statistics is to find a number that means something and then to prove it means what you think it does. Edward Tufte
Many a statistic is false on its face. It gets by only because the magic of numbers brings about a suspension of common sense. Darrell Huff
Statistics: the only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions. Evan Esar
Many a statistic is false on its face. It gets by only because the magic of numbers bring about a suspension of common sense Darrell Huff
There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up. Rex Stout
A well wrapped statistic is better than Hitler’s big lie it misleads, yet it cannot be pinned on you. Darrell Huff
Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business. Zig Ziglar
It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us in trouble. It’s the things we know that ain’t so. Artemus Ward Darrell Huff
In dealing with statistical data, one is often tempted to ignore that which shows less progress than one would like, or to emphasize that which shows more progress than is really there. Dorothy Sayers
Just to clear the air, let’s note first of all that whatever an intelligence test measures, it is not quite the same thing as we usually mean by intelligence. It neglects such important things as leadership and creative imagination. It takes no account of social judgment or musical or artistic or other aptitudes, to say nothing of such personality matters as diligence and emotional balance. Darrell Huff
There are two types of people in the world: those who accept statistical statements as true without question, and those who do not understand them. John McCarthy
Hardly anybody is exactly normal in any way, just as one hundred tossed pennies will rarely come up exactly fifty heads and fifty tails. Darrell Huff
If statistics are to be believed, what we have lost in housework we have gained in longevity. Robert Quillen
The purely random sample is the only kind that can be examined with confidence by means of statistical theory, but there is one things wrong with it. It is so difficult and expensive to obtain for many uses that sheer cost eliminates it. A more economical substitute, which is almost universally used in such fields as opinion polling and market research, is called stratified random sampling. Darrell Huff
It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics. GB Shaw
IF YOU can’t prove what you want to prove, demonstrate something else and pretend that they are the same thing. In the daze that follows the collision of statistics with the human mind, hardly anybody will notice the difference. The semi attached figure is a device guaranteed to stand you in good stead. It always has. Darrell Huff
Consumers are statistics. Customers are people. Stanley Marcus
Just to clear the air, let’s note first of all that whatever an intelligence test measures, it is not quite the same thing as we usually mean by intelligence. It neglects such important things as leadership and creative imagination. It takes no account of social judgment or musical or artistic or other aptitudes, to say nothing of such personality matters as diligence and emotional balance. Darrell Huff
Statistics is the grammar of science. Karl Pearson
Statistics real contribution to society is primarily moral, not technical. Max Morris
To apply statistics without understanding them is like driving a car without knowing how the engine works. David Salzburg
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable. Mark Twain
For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert in statistics Arthur Bloch
Statisticians, like artists, have the bad habit of falling in love with their models. George Box
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. Ronald H. Coase
Most people use statistics the way a drunkard uses a lamp post, more for support than illumination. Mark Twain
