The Appearance of Statistical Ideas in Prose, Poetry, and Drama: A Dictionary of Quotations, Aphorisms, Apothegms, Excerpts and Epigrams

It is not always easy to understand ideas that are statistical or probabilistic in character. It is even less easy to explain those ideas well. The quotations in this collection were assembled partly to understand how to understand, at least insofar as words (rather than statistical models) permit, and how writers think and explain. One of the motives here is also to assure that readers know from where the quotations come. Anybody nowadays can do a Google search and get what is alleged to a quote by someone famous. But the Googler might never know from where the thing came. Here, the intent is to assure that the right sources, properly cited, and the page numbers etc. are identified. The final motive is amusement. If these quotations amuse and entice others’ interest, that would be lovely.