“I can prove anything by statistics except the truth.”

—  George Canning

As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) edited by Tryon Edwards, p. 587.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I can prove anything by statistics except the truth." by George Canning?
George Canning photo
George Canning 11
British statesman and politician 1770–1827

Related quotes

Thomas Paine photo

“It has often been said, that anything may be proved from the Bible, but before anything can be admitted as proved by the Bible, the Bible itself must be proved to be true; for if the Bible be not true, or the truth of it be doubtful, it ceases to have authority, and cannot be admitted as proof of anything.”

Thomas Paine book The Age of Reason

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part II (1795)

M. K. Hobson photo

““I’ll do everything I can to help, I promise.”
“You always have,” Emily murmured. Except tell me the truth about anything.”

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 23, “The Skycladdische and the Sangrimancer” (p. 329)

Joseph Hayne Rainey photo

“I think the statistics will prove that there is as much virtue among the Negroes as among the whites.”

Joseph Hayne Rainey (1832–1887) politician

1873, Speech on Civil Rights Act (1873)

George Gallup photo

“I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone — the chances that all the functions of an individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity.”

George Gallup (1901–1984) American statistician

Quoted in http://books.google.com/books?id=ck6bXqt5shkC&q="I+could+prove+God+statistically"&pg=PA298#v=onepage Readers Digest (October 1943)

Oliver Wendell Holmes photo

“You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

Larry Wall photo

“You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199706242038.NAA29853@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

Kent Hovind photo

“Just because you can arrange animals in order, that doesn't prove anything. Even if you find them buried in a certain order, that doesn't prove anything. If I get buried on top of a hamster, does that prove he's my grandpa? No! Order of burial means nothing!”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Creation seminars (2003-2005), Lies in the textbooks

Alexander Hamilton photo

“I have studied it, and I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man.”

Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) Founding Father of the United States

John Church Hamilton, History of the republic of the United States of America: as traced in the writings of Alexander Hamilton and of his cotemporaries, v. 7 p. 790. John Church Hamilton was Alexander Hamilton's son. He gives his source for the first quotation as the Reminiscences of General Morton, but gives no source for the second.
Attributed
Context: It was the tendency to infidelity he saw so rife that led him often to declare in the social circle his estimate of Christian truth. “I have examined carefully,” he said to a friend from his boyhood, “the evidence of the Christian religion; and, if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity, I should unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor.” To another person, he observed, “I have studied it, and I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man.”

“Love can't be pinned down by a definition, and it certainly can't be proved, anymore than anything else important in life can be proved.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Section 1.16
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)

Related topics