Statistic Quotes

“The logic behind patriotism is a mystery. At least a man who believes that his own family or clan is superior to all others is familiar with more than 0.000003% of the people involved.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“A life saved is a statistic; a person hurt is an anecdote. Statistics are invisible; anecdotes are salient.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

“The quotation falsely attributed to Stalin, 'One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic,' gets the numbers wrong but captures a real fact about human psychology. (p. 220)”
― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

“Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs”
― Nancy Pelosi

“The most important thing to know about statistics is that you don't have to be a statistic.”
― Adam Smith

“The doctor asks the patient some form of the following: “So, what is wrong?” (or, in my case, my doc always asks “So, what are your concerns?”). The doctor listens for an average of 9 seconds, then intervenes with a prognosis. The amount of time the doctor is willing to listen before intervening has gone down over time, presumably as health insurers have pressured doctors to increase throughput and as they have greatly increased the amount of paperwork required of doctors. In other words, it is in the name of efficiency. The efficiency fairies are at work in the doctor’s office to eliminate all that wasteful time spent in creating a doctor-patient relationship.”
― L. Randall Wray

“In the United States, the risk that your loved one will be killed by a drunk person is nearly 50 times higher than the risk that he or she will be killed by a terrorist”
― Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

“So when I presented to what was until then the most hostile crowd in the world, members of the American Statistical Association, a map of the four quadrants, and told them: your knowledge works beautifully in these three quadrants, but beware of the fourth one, as this is where the Black Swans breed, I received instant approval, support, offers of permanent friendship, refreshments (Diet Coke), invitations to come present at their sessions, even hugs.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable