“Everyone dies—the rearrangement of when is a matter of only statistical interest.”
Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 13, “A View from a Height” (p. 238)
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Michael Swanwick 96
American science fiction author 1950Related quotes
“Everyone's a little crazy when you get inside their head… it's only a matter of degree.”
Fear of Flying (1973)
When Churchill was in opposition after 1945, he led the Conservative Party in a debate about the Health Service. As he listened to Aneurin Bevan’s opening speech, he called for some statistics about infant mortality … [which were] supplied, copiously and accurately, by Iain Macleod, then working in the back rooms of the Conservative Research Department. But, in his speech, Churchill made only one bold and sweeping use … [of Macleod’s detailed research]. Encountering MacLeod afterward, Churchill made the above statement. As cited in The Life of Politics (1968), Henry Fairlie, Methuen, pp. 203-204.
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Context: I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is that, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.
“Death is more universal than life. Everyone dies, but not everyone lives.”
From the preface to Elementary Principles in Statististical Mechanics (1902), p. ix.
“His views on matters of fine art were appreciated by everyone not only in India but also abroad.”
V.V.Giri, in "Maharajah of music"
