“Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.”
Actually said by Andrew Lang, in a 1910 speech: "Politicians use statistics in the same way that a drunk uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination", as quoted in Alan L. Mackay, The Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977), and reported in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (2005), p. 488.
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Vin Scully12
American sports broadcaster 1927Related quotes
Andrew Lang (1844–1912) Scots poet, novelist and literary critic
1910 Speech, quoted in Alan L. Mackay The Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977), as reported in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (2005), p. 488.
Widely attributed to Lang (e.g. in Elizabeth M. Knowles, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press; and in Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Columbia University Press).
Variant: He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts—for support rather than illumination.
“Magic, madam, is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk.”
Susanna Clarke book The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
Source: The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
Ernesto Che Guevara book Guerrilla Warfare
Source: Guerrilla Warfare (1961), Ch. I: 1. Essence of Guerrilla Warfare
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994) Hasidic rabbi
As quoted in Joseph Telushkin's Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History
Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer
Man's Rise to Civilization (1968), p. 276
Charles Darwin book The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms
Source: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), Chapter 1: Habits of Worms, p. 23. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=38&itemID=F1357&viewtype=image