"When a cryptanalyst starts out trying to analyze a new algorithm, his first thought is probably: "Yikes. What a mess. I'll never make sense of this". So there are all sorts of tricks to help you start to probe into the convoluted innards of the cipher. One of these is to attack a weakened version. Later, he may be able to extend the attack to the full strength version; or, if this cannot be done, the reason why it can't at least gives some insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the cipher."

"For the computer security community, the moral is obvious: if you are designing a system whose functions include providing evidence, it had better be able to withstand hostile review."

"Due to the suspicious nature of crypto users I have a feeling DES will be with us forever, we will just keep adding keys and cycles..."

"Feistel and Coppersmith rule. Sixteen rounds and one hell of an avalanche."

"The magic words are squeamish ossifrage"

"The multiple human needs and desires that demand privacy among two or more people in the midst of social life must inevitably lead to cryptology wherever men thrive and wherever they write."

"It is even because the 2 times table it goes 0, 2, 4, 6, 8."

"I thought zero was an even number, but from the meeting I got sort of mixed up because I heard other ideas I agree with and now I don't know which one I should agree with. … I'm going to listen more to the discussion and find out. - Mei"

"I didn't think zero was even or odd until yesterday and then someone said it could be even because one below zero and one above zero are both odd, and that made sense. - Sheena"

"Um, first I said that um, zero was even but then I guess I revised so that zero, I think, is special because um, I— um, even numbers, like they — they make even numbers; like two, um, two makes four, and four is an even number; and four makes eight; eight is an even number; and um, like that. And, and go on like that and like one plus one and go on adding the same numbers with the same numbers. And so I, I think zero's special. - Benny"

"No one gets owt if it's shared out."

"...can't split it out, because you haven't got nowt."

"Zero is even because if you divide it in half, both people get nothing."

"Dividing by zero...allows you to prove, mathematically, anything in the universe. You can prove that 1+1=42, and from there you can prove that J. Edgar Hoover is a space alien, that William Shakespeare came from Uzbekistan, or even that the sky is polka-dotted? (See appendix A for a proof that Winston Churchill was a carrot.)"

"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

"Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin."

"While in theory randomness is an intrinsic property, in practice, randomness is incomplete information."

"The definition of random in terms of a physical operation is notoriously without effect on the mathematical operations of statistical theory because so far as these mathematical operations are concerned random is purely and simply an undefined term."

"One of us recalls producing a 'random' plot with only 11 planes, and being told by his computer center's programming consultant that he had misused the random number generator: 'We guarantee that each number is random individually, but we don’t guarantee that more than one of them is random.' Figure that out."

"Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us."

"For I do not believe that it is through the interference of Divine Providence … that the spittle of a certain person moved, fell on a certain gnat in a certain place, and killed it."

"Quand une regle est fort composée, ce qui luy est conforme, passe pour irrégulier."

"A random sequence is a vague notion in which each term is unpredictable to the uninitiated and whose digits pass a certain number of tests traditional with statisticians and depending somewhat on the uses to which the sequence is to be put."

"The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random."

"Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random."

"Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe — in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance."

"The fact that randomness requires a physical rather than a mathematical source is noted by almost everyone who writes on the subject, and yet the oddity of this situation is not much remarked."

"Fretting about a dearth of randomness seems like worrying that humanity might use up its last reserves of ignorance."

"Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen."

"Randomness is a very, very subtle concept with its study properly belonging to statisticians more than mathematicians."

"Perhaps randomness is not merely an adequate description for complex causes that we cannot specify. Perhaps the world really works this way, and many events are uncaused in any conventional sense of the word."

"Events may appear to us to be random, but this could be attributed to human ignorance about the details of the processes involved."

"The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice."

"The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance."

"He who believes this (atomism) may as well believe that if a great quantity of the one-and-twenty letters, composed either of gold or any other matter, were thrown upon the ground, they would fall into such order as legibly to form the Annals of Ennius. I doubt whether fortune could make a single verse of them."

"How dare we speak of the laws of chance? Is not chance the antithesis of all law?"

"Average a left-hander with a right-hander and what do you get?"

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

"The main problem with statistics is statisticians."

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

"Thomasina: If there is an equation for a curve like a bell, there must be an equation for one like a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose? Do we believe nature is written in numbers? Septimus: We do. Thomasina: Then why do your shapes describe only the shapes of manufacture? Septimus: I do not know. Thomasina: Armed thus, God could only make a cabinet."

"The individual source of the statistics may easily be the weakest link. Harold Cox tells a story of his life as a young man in India. He quoted some statistics to a Judge, an Englishman, and a very good fellow. His friend said, Cox, when you are a bit older, you will not quote Indian statistics with that assurance. The Government are very keen on amassing statistics—they collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But what you must never forget is that every one of those figures comes in the first instance from the chowty dar [chowkidar] (village watchman), who just puts down what he damn pleases."

"Numbers and stats bob in a sentimental slop, a swampy slurry of bits of hard data and buckets of mushy manipulation."