citizenship in the changing world of tomorrow.
Quotes about data
A collection of quotes on the topic of data, use, information, doing.
Quotes about data

On Wii
Source: November 16, 2006 Business Week interview http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/tc20061116_750580.htm

Interviewed in 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65688,00.html

Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters

“It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.”
Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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

2015, Remarks after the Umpqua Community College shooting (October 2015)

Source: Wozu noch Philosophie? [Why still philosophy?] (1963), p. 9

Source: Dean of the Plasma Dissidents (1988), p. 197.

"On Induction"
1910s, The Problems of Philosophy (1912)

Online http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/seventh_letter.html
The 7th Epistle

Source: 1910s, Our Knowledge of the External World (1914), p. 70

Obama Racial Profiling (10-27-2015) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-racial-profiling_us_562fde34e4b00aa54a4ba5f2
2015

2000s, Youth Q&A on the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda Report (2009)

Source: The Philosophy of Misery (1846), Chapter I

[‘A real free press for the first time in history’: Wikileaks editor speaks out in London, Journalism.co.uk, 2007-08-12, 2010-08-01, http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2010/07/12/a-real-free-press-for-the-first-time-in-history-wikileaks-editor-speaks-out-in-london/]

Statement by the President https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/07/statement-president (7 July 2016)
2016

British Agricultural Bulletin 4, 217–218, 1951.
1950s

2014, Review of Signals Intelligence Speech (June 2014)
Context: There was a recognition by all who participated in these reviews that the challenges to our privacy do not come from government alone. Corporations of all shapes and sizes track what you buy, store and analyze our data, and use it for commercial purposes; that’s how those targeted ads pop up on your computer and your smartphone periodically. But all of us understand that the standards for government surveillance must be higher. Given the unique power of the state, it is not enough for leaders to say: Trust us, we won’t abuse the data we collect. For history has too many examples when that trust has been breached. Our system of government is built on the premise that our liberty cannot depend on the good intentions of those in power; it depends on the law to constrain those in power.

Source: 1790s, The Age of Reason, Part II (1795), Chapter III: Conclusion.
Context: The study of theology as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and admits of no conclusion. Not any thing can be studied as a science without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded; and as this is not the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the study of nothing.

“But the government collection and storage of such bulk data also creates a potential for abuse.”
2014, Review of Signals Intelligence Speech (June 2014)
Context: [T]he combination of increased digital information and powerful supercomputers offers intelligence agencies the possibility of sifting through massive amounts of bulk data to identify patterns or pursue leads that may thwart impending threats. It’s a powerful tool. But the government collection and storage of such bulk data also creates a potential for abuse.

As quoted in Management and the Computer of the Future (1962) by Sloan School of Management, p. 273
Context: We must include in any language with which we hope to describe complex data-processing situations the capability for describing data. We must also include a mechanism for determining the priorities to be applied to the data. These priorities are not fixed and are indicated in many cases by the data.
Thus we must have a language and a structure that will take care of the data descriptions and priorities, as well as the operations we wish to perform. If we think seriously about these problems, we find that we cannot work with procedures alone, since they are sequential. We need to define the problem instead of the procedures. The Language Structures Group of the Codasyl Committee has been studying the structure of languages that can be used to describe data-processing problems. The Group started out by trying to design a language for stating procedures, but soon discovered that what was really required was a description of the data and a statement of the relationships between the data sets. The Group has since begun writing an algebra of processes, the background for a theory of data processing.
Clearly, we must break away from the sequential and not limit the computers. We must state definitions and provide for priorities and descriptions of data. We must state relationships, not procedures.

"Freedom as Teacher" in Human Options : An Autobiographical Notebook (1981).
Context: There is a tendency to mistake data for wisdom, just as there has always been a tendency to confuse logic with values, intelligence with insight. Unobstructed access to facts can produce unlimited good only if it is matched by the desire and ability to find out what they mean and where they lead. Facts are terrible things if left sprawling and unattended. They are too easily regarded as evaluated certainties rather than as the rawest of raw materials crying to be processed into the texture of logic. It requires a very unusual mind, Whitehead said, to undertake the analysis of a fact. The computer can provide a correct number, but it may be an irrelevant number until judgment is pronounced.

2014, Review of Signals Intelligence Speech (June 2014)

Fidel Castro Reader, pp. 238
Words to Intellectuals (1961)

W. Allen Wallis (1952) at the University of Chicago while honoring Fisher with the Honorary degree of Doctor of Science; cited in: George E. P. Box (1976) " Science and Statistics http://www-sop.inria.fr/members/Ian.Jermyn/philosophy/writings/Boxonmaths.pdf" Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 71, No. 356. (Dec., 1976), pp. 791-799.

Zakir Naik on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc3h-gjiRTg https://swarajyamag.com/politics/zakir-naik-wants-islamic-nations-to-collect-data-on-indian-non-muslims-attacking-muslims-arrest-them-during-travel
2020
Source: The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (1983), p. 71

“Realize that agendas drive data, not the other way round”
Source: Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World

“Data! data! data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay.”
Source: The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
“One person's data is another person's noise.”


“Information is just bits of data. Knowledge is putting them together. Wisdom is transcending them.”

“If you want data to survive, carve it in rock.”
Source: Academy Series - Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, Cauldron (2007), Chapter 28 (p. 256)

Vol. 1, p. 17
The Foundations of a Creed (1874-5)
Gerardine DeSanctis, Brad M. Jackson, in: Coordination of information technology management: team-based structures and computer-based communication systems http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1189653, Journal of Management Information Systems - Special issue: Information technology and organization design Volume 10 Issue 4, March 1994, pp 85-110.

Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa
2010s, <u>Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa</u> (2011)

"Open Source and the future of print in the age of the Social Network" http://www.linuxvoice.com/interview-tim-oreilly/, Linux Voice, February 20, 2015. ( WebCite archive http://www.webcitation.org/6WiMJqC9h)

“Without “big data”, you are blind and deaf and in the middle of a freeway.”
Geoffrey Moore, title of book chapter in: The Business Book, 2014. Dorling Kindersley Ltd, p. 316

Groupon CEO: “I Was Fired Today.” http://allthingsd.com/20130228/groupon-dumps-andrew-mason-as-ceo (February 28, 2013)

"4th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80nhqGfN6t8, Youtube (December 25, 2007)
Youtube, Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism
Leonard Jimmie Savage in 1960s; cited in: JOC/EFR (2006) " George Edward Pelham Box http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Box.html" at history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk, Nov 2006.
you don't see electrons, gravity, or black holes either
Source: Wonderful Life (1989), p. 279

"Dubya's Double Dip?" http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/02/opinion/dubya-s-double-dip.html, The New York Times, 2 August 2002
:It should be noted that Krugman was being sarcastic http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/when-someone-says-paul-krugman-called-for-greenspan-to-create-a-housing-bubble-back-in-2002-they-are-trying-to-say-that-they-are-either-a-fool-or-a-liar; two weeks later, he wrote an article http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/16/opinion/mind-the-gap.html warning about the dangers of a housing bubble.
The New York Times Columns
Bush, Stephen F., ' Molecular communications: Researchers are looking at ways to broadcast messages using chemical rather than electrical signals http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21598326-molecular-communications-researchers-are-looking-ways-broadcast-messages,' The Economist, Technology Quarterly: Q1 2014.

Let There Be Light, Natural History Magazine, October 2003, 2010-12-07 http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2003/10/01/let-there-be-light,
2000s

“There is little scientific data on the point, but evidently people do speak to themselves.”
David Crystal, "Refining stylistic discourse categories," In: G. Melchers & B. Warren (eds), English linguistics in honour of Magnus Ljung (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1994), 35-46
Spectrum: From Right to Left in the World of Ideas (2005), Ch. 11. "Atlas of the Family, Göran Therborn" (2005)

Towards a Systems Theory of Organization, 1985, From Data to Wisdom, 1989

Session 833, Page 163
The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, (1981)
"Which Way Forward for Macroeconomics and Policy Analysis?" 2013

Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product,1931

Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, "Das Weltbild und die Begriffsapparatur", in Erkenntnis, 1934, Vol. 4, p. 259; as cited in: Schaff (1962;81-82)

“Submission to the experimental data is the golden rule that dominates any scientific discipline.”
La soumission aux données de l'expérience est la règle d'or qui domine toute discipline scientifique.
in his speech when he was awarded the Academician sword, address to the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (October 19, 1993).

Gene Amdahl, Gerrit Blaauw, and Fred Brooks (1964) "Architecture of the IBM System." in: IBM Journal of Research and Development Vol 8 (2) p. 87-101.
The Synthesis of Algorithmic Systems, 1966
Source: Systems Engineering Tools, (1965), Systems Engineering Methods (1967), p. 24; First paragraph of Ch. 2. System Organization, Scheduling, and Record-Keeping
Richard Cyert, James G. March, William H. Starbuck. (1961) "Two experiments on bias and conflict in organisational estimation," Management Science, 254–64; Abstract

Richard Cyert, James G. March, William H. Starbuck. (1961) "Two experiments on bias and conflict in organisational estimation," Management Science, 254–64; Abstract

(1994, p. 44) cited in: Leonard Brand (1997) Faith, reason, and earth history
Integrity in Science (1985)

"Drugs, Hallucinations, and the Quest for Reality" (1964) quoting an unknown psychiatric text, reprinted in The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995) Lawrence Sutin, ed.

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 4

Pearl, Judea (2008) "Causal Inference," in: Pearl, Judea. The science and ethics of causal modeling. (2010).

9-10
Essays, Can Poetry Matter? (1991), Poetry as Enchantment (2015)

Ragnar Frisch (1926); Quoted in: " Ragnar Frisch 1895-1995 https://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/doc/doc_199403.pdf." O. Bjerkholt, 1994.
1920

Floris Cohen, The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry (1994)

August-Wilhelm Scheer, I. Cameron (1992) Architecture of integrated information systems: foundations of enterprise modelling. Abstract.
[ Link to tweet https://twitter.com/dril/status/384408932061417472]
Tweets by year, 2013

“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.”
Quoted in William Kenneth Richmond (1969), The Education Industry.
May be modern paraphrase of "the errors which arise from the absence of facts" quote above.
Attributed

2010s, Hard Truths: Law Enforcement (2015)

"Trump and Trade," http://praag.org/?p=21936Praag.org, March 12, 2016.
2010s, 2016

“Data has no ego and makes an excellent copilot.”
Source: Disrupt You! (2015), p.119