43 quotes
Any bit of nonsense can be computerized—astrology, biorhythms, the I Ching—but that doesn’t make the nonsense any more valid.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)
There’s always enough random success to justify almost anything to someone who wants to believe.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)
In general, any differences between two groups will always be greatly accentuated at the extremes.
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)
Even the most superficial of a newspaper reveals an important aspect of human psychology: our preoccupation with the short term.
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)
Appreciating humor—even recognizing it—requires human skills of the highest order (level?); no computer comes close to having them.
Mathematics and Humor: A Study of the Logic of Humor (1980)
Humor, since it depends on so many emotional, social, and intellectual facets of human beings, is particularly immune to computer simulation.
Mathematics and Humor: A Study of the Logic of Humor (1980)
Two dangers threaten the world—order and disorder.
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)
Innumerate people characteristically have a strong tendency to personalize—to be misled by their own experiences, or by the media’s focus on individuals and drama.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)
There is no such thing as free lunch, and even if there were, there’d be no guarantee against indigestion.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)
The whole weight of science is the prima facie evidence against a miracle having occurred.
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)
Correlation and causation are two quite different words, and the innumerate are more prone to mistake them than most.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)
To follow foolish precedents, and wink with both eyes, is easier than to think.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)
After all, one must have some grasp of logic even to recognize a non sequitur.
Mathematics and Humor: A Study of the Logic of Humor (1980)
Claiming that a holy book’s claims are undeniable because the book itself claims them to be is convincing only to the convinced.
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)
There surely is something to these terms, but too often they’re the result of minds intent on discovering meaning where there is only probability.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)
You can only predict things after they’ve happened.
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)
Together the, two ingredients—a perceived incongruity with a point and an appropriate emotional climate—seem to be both necessary and sufficient for humor.
Mathematics and Humor: A Study of the Logic of Humor (1980)
Gullible citizens are a demagogue’s dream.
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)
The fashion pages have always puzzled me. In my smugly ignorant view, the articles appear to be so full of fluff and nonsense as to make the astrology columns seem insightful by comparison.
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)
There are, of course, innumerable abuses, countless possible misinterpretations, and depressingly many biased studies, but, done right, the process works; it yields knowledge.
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995)