Darrell Huff --- "Scope for Imagination" and Other Quotes

"Don't be a novelist --- be a statistician. Much more scope for the imagination."

"If you can't prove what you want to prove, demonstrate something else and pretend they are the same thing. In the daze that follows the collision of statistics with the human mind, hardly anybody will notice the difference."

"Proper treatment will cure a cold in seven days, but left to itself, a cold will hang on for a week."

"It is dangerous to mention any subject having high emotional content without hastily saying where you for or agin' it." ( from How to Lie with Statistics p.46).

Happy Ending

My interest in the life of Darrell Huff and his remarkable book finally lead to a biographical article: Darrell Huff and Fifty Years of How to Lie with Statistics (Statistical Science 2005).

It was fun doing a biographical piece of a non-statistician whose work had meaning for the statistical community. If you can think of anyone else of this ilk who you would like to read about, please send along your suggestion.

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