I was in a client meeting yesterday. All of the participants had PhDs. We were talking about data storytelling and data visualization concepts — how to simplify the presentation, how to make it more impactful, how to turn it from dry to dynamic, prototyping stories, and so forth.
A word or phrase of some sort, prompted one person to share the funny Mark Twain on statistics below (first one below). Every had a good laugh.
It got me thinking about funny quotes related to math, statistics, and science. As such, I curated some of my favorites. If you have a favorite, please email me. Let’s spread the atoms (yuck yuck).
Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.
– Mark Twain
American writer | Born, Samuel Langhorne Clemens | 1835 – 1910
It’s easy to identify people who can’t count to ten. They’re in front of you in the supermarket express lane.
– June Henderson
Statistics is the grammar of science.
– Karl Pearson
English mathematician and biostatistician | 1857 – 1936
Statistics are to baseball what a flaky crust is to Mom’s apple pie.
– Harry Reasoner
American journalist for ABC and CBS – launched 60 Minutes program | 1923 – 1991
An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour. That’s relativity.
– Albert Einstein
Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 | Father of “Relativity” | 1879 – 1955
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
– Bill Watterson
Illustrator | Creator of Calvin and Hobbes cartoon series
I’m a visual thinker, really bad at algebra. There’s others that are a pattern thinker. These are the music and math minds. They think in patterns instead of pictures. Then there’s another type that’s not a visual thinker at all, and they’re the ones that memorize all of the sports statistics, all of the weather statistics.
– Temple Grandin
Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University | Speaker | Author
If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.
– Ernest Rutherford
New Zealand physicist | 1st Baron Rutherford Nelson | Discovered concept of radioactive half-life | Awardee Nobel Prize in Chemistry | 1871 – 1937
Statistics do not convey emotion. They shock us for a minute or two, and then we click again.
– Madeleine M. Kunin
American diplomat, author and politician | 77th Governor of Vermont | United States Ambassador to Switzerland
It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.
– George Bernard Shaw
Irish playwright | 1856 – 1950
In ancient times they had no statistics so they had to fall back on lies.
– Stephen Leacock
Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, humorist | 1869 – 1944
Being a scientist is like doing a jigsaw puzzle in a snowstorm at night, with some pieces missing, and with no idea what the finished picture looks like.
– Anonymous scientist
We all understand the twinge of discomfort at the thought that we share a common ancestor with the apes. No one can embarrass you like a relative.
– Neal deGrasse Tyson
American astrophysicist
The advantage of growing up with siblings is that you become very good at fractions.
– Robert Brault
Freelance writer & author
If A is success in life, I should say the formula is A=X+Y+Z, X being work and Y being play… Z is keeping your mouth shut.
– Albert Einstein
Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 | Father of “Relativity” | 1879 – 1955
Photography Source: DepositPhotos
#chiefstoryteller #datastorytelling #presentations #publicspeaking