Statistics

"The best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in everyone's backyard"

"Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise."

"The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data."

"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."

"Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read or write."

"Statistics is a body of methods for making wise decisions in the face of uncertainty"

"While nothing is more uncertain than the duration of a single life, nothing is more certain than the average duration of a thousand lives."

"The bulk of statistical criticism is of the hit-and-run variety – the critic points out some real or fancied flaw and supposes that his job is done. Indeed, some critics appear to labor under the misconception that if some flaw can be found in a study, this automatically in validates the author’s conclusions. Since the critic makes no attempt to develop a tenable counterhypothesis, his performance is on a par with that of a proponent who glances at his data and then jumps to his conclusion."