James A. Garfield Quotes
Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In legislation as in physical science it is beginning to be understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics.
Garfield, James A. The Works of James Abram Garfield. Edited by Burke A. Hinsdale, vol. 1, James R. Osgood and Company, 1882, p. 433.
While the context applied to making business policy decisions, he also advocated it for politics and managing government. If policy makers or managers speculate and then act to fix possible and imaginable problem, they will waste time and resources dealing with eventualities that may never come to pass. A better strategy is to obtain data, analysize that, and fix the problems that we know will occur.
James Abram Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March to September 1881. Garfield was shot by an assassin four months into his presidency and died two months later. He is the only sitting member of the United States House of Representatives to be elected to the presidency.
