“If you torture the data enough, nature will always confess.”

—  Ronald H. Coase

Coase states that he said this in a talk at the University of Virginia in the early 1960s and that this saying, "in a somewhat altered form, has taken its place in the statistical literature."
Alternative: "If you torture the data long enough, it will confess."
Cited in: Gordon Tullock, "A Comment on Daniel Klein's 'A Plea to Economists Who Favor Liberty'", Eastern Economic Journal, Spring 2001.
1960s-1980s, "How should economists choose?" (1981)
Source: Essays on Economics and Economists

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Ronald H. Coase photo
Ronald H. Coase19
British economist and author 1910–2013

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