
“Many of the things you can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count, really count.”
From William Bruce Cameron's Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963), p. 13. The comment is part of a longer paragraph and does not appear in quotations in Cameron's book, and other sources http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22not%20everything%20that%20can%20be%20counted%20counts%22%20cameron&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=bks:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=wp such as The Student's Companion to Sociology (p. 92) http://books.google.com/books?id=KMsB1GE8dBEC&lpg=PA92&dq=%22Not%20everything%20that%20can%20be%20counted%20counts%22&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q=%22Not%20everything%20that%20can%20be%20counted%20counts%22&f=false attribute the quote to Cameron. A number of recent books http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=p&tbs=bks:1&q=%22not+everything+that+can+be+counted%22+einstein+princeton&start=0&sa=N claim that Einstein had a sign with these words in his office in Princeton, but until a reliable historical source can be found to support this, skepticism is warranted. The earliest source on Google Books that mentions the quote in association with Einstein and Princeton is Charles A. Garfield's 1986 book Peak Performers: The New Heroes of American Business, in which he wrote on p. 156:
: Albert Einstein liked to underscore the micro/macro partnership with a remark from Sir George Pickering that he chalked on the blackboard in his office at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
Misattributed
“Many of the things you can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count, really count.”
“Votes are counted. Yes—but vision can neither be counted nor discounted.”
A Testament (1957)
“Everything that happens before Death is what counts.”
Variant: Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before death is what counts.
Source: Something Wicked This Way Comes
“Don’t count, feel! The only count I know, is Count Basie!”
when asked about her preference for six-count or eight-count in Lindy Hop http://www.it-must-schwing.de/wir-ueber-uns
“Life is glorious, but it can be counted on to be cruel.”
Source: The Last Jew
“Being an optimist after you've got everything you want doesn't count.”
As quoted in Peter's People (1979) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 28.
“Don't count the days, make the days count.”
Source: The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1830-1857