How to Lie with Statistics

Quotes

• “A well-wrapped statistic is better than Hitler's "big lie"; it misleads, yet it cannot be pinned on you.”

• “It is all too reminiscent of an old definition of the lecture method of classroom instruction: a process by which the contents of the textbook of the instructor are transferred to the notebook of the student without passing through the heads of either party.”

• “"Well," he said, "I have to put in some horse meat too. But I mix 'em fifty-fifty: one horse, one rabbit."”

• “Nothing has been falsified—except the impression that it gives.”

• “"Does it make sense?" will often cut a statistic down to size when the whole rigmarole is based on an unproven assumption.”