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Quotes from Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences — John Allen Paulos

born 1945 United States

← All quotes by John Allen Paulos

12 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)

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)

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)

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)

If we’re not keenly aware of the choices we’re making, we’re not likely to work for better ones.

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

Bad things happen periodically, and they’re going to happen to somebody. Why not you?

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

I remember thinking of mathematics as a kind of omnipotent protector. You could prove things to people and they would have to believe you whether they liked you or not.

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

Too often, this concern for the big picture is simply obscurantist and is put forward by people who prefer vagueness and mystery to (partial) answers. Vagueness is at times necessary and mystery is never in short supply, but I don’t think they’re anything to worship. Genuine science and mathematical precision are more intriguing than are the “facts” published in supermarket tabloids or a romantic innumeracy which fosters credulity, stunts skepticism, and dulls one to real imponderables.

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

A tendency to drastically underestimate the frequency of coincidences is a prime characteristic of innumerates, who generally accord great significance to correspondences of all sorts while attributing too little significance to quite conclusive but less flashy statistical evidence.

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Allen Paulos (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.