David Kirk Quotes

The type of measure used placed constraints on which statistics can be used.

Serious numbers will speak to us always.

I think statistics go in one ear and out the other. All of us respond to stories more than numbers.

The statistics might have a Eurosceptic cast, but they are not exactly a fun read. Few of us want to wade through ONS graphs or European Commission tables.

The value of having numbers - data - is that they aren't subject to someone else's interpretation. They are just the numbers. You can decide what they mean for you.

I think that a failure of statistical thinking is the major intellectual shortcoming of our universities, journalism and intellectual culture.

Math is a language that you use to describe statistics, but really it's about collecting information and putting it in an order that makes sense.

Definition of a Statistician: A man who believes figures don't lie, but admits than under analysis some of them won't stand up either.

Be able to analyze statistics, which can be used to support or undercut almost any argument.

We have entered an era where the kinds of data and analyses that people run have gotten incredibly complicated. So you have researchers using sophisticated software programs that they probably don't understand but are generally accepted and everyone [in the field] uses.

We spend our time bandying statistics about.

We must never let a blizzard of statistics blind us to the real lives and people behind them.

To understand God’s thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose.

You'll never hear me talk about stats.

Being insignificant statistically doesn't mean it's right or wrong. It just means you don't have enough data to show yes or no.

If we just focus on stats, we're gonna eventually not have them.

If you're a social scientist worth your salt, you never do a univariate analysis.

I've never been a stat guy.

In modern times sound policy-making must often come to grips with numbers.

Statistics and numbers are no good unless you have good people to analyse and then interpret their meaning and importance.

[Statistics are] the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of Man.

Them as counts counts moren them as dont count

Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they are not brutalized, but delicately handled by the higher methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of Man.

The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning process.

The next darwin is more likely to be a data wonk than a naturalist wandering through an exotic landscape.