Mosteller Quotes & Sayings

The main purpose of a significance test is to inhibit the natural enthusiasm of the investigator. — Frederick Mosteller

I hope you will understand it! Linnaeus says the plants get married and make new plant families, and then those families intermarry and create the species, and then the species intermarry and produce the varieties. You can see why Father would object."
"I suppose," says Weed. "But at least they were all legally wed. — Maryrose Wood

I would spend months and months looking for a sound. I had to do that, or I wouldn't feel the extreme emotions I was feeling in my heart. — Michael Masser

The Skeptic's mistake lies in thinking that we should tie our hands behind our backs just because we will not be able to reach rock-hard conclusions. — Frederick Mosteller

I don't know if I wanted to be Spielberg; I would never say that. — Colin Trevorrow

If you can't make up your mind decisively, then you'll never learn to make money anyway. — Robert T. Kiyosaki

Much of what I have learned, as well as much of my intellectual enjoyment, has come through problem solving. Through the years, I've found it more and more difficult to tell when I was working and when playing, for it has so often turned out that what I have learned playing with problems has been useful in my serious work. — Frederick Mosteller

There is nothing so cleansing or reassuring as a vicarious sadness. — David Rakoff

It is easy to lie with statistics; it is easier to lie without them. — Frederick Mosteller

While it is easy to lie with statistics, it is even easier to lie without them. — Frederick Mosteller

I fear no more I fear no more about you- I am gone you cannot touch me- the fragile threads that bridged our worlds together have been washed away by tears and laughter. you can't make me cry- your words bounce thoughtlessly off my shell back at you- don't you wish you could have me? I'm worth a lot, but not to you. — Michelle Mosteller

The offhand decision of some commonplace mind high in office at a critical moment influences the course of events for a hundred years. — Thomas Hardy

Although we often hear that data speak for themselves, their voices can be soft and sly — Frederick Mosteller

In a problem, the great thing is the challenge. A problem can be challenging for many reasons: because the subject matter is intriguing, because the answer defies unsophisticated intuition, because it illustrates an important principle, because of its vast generality, because of its difficulty, because of a clever solution, or even because of the simplicity or beauty of the answer. — Frederick Mosteller

I was one of those girls that were repeatedly told, "You have such a pretty face." (I suspected that was said to every fat girl.) Translation: If I weren't so fat, I'd be pretty. Gratzi! — Misti D. Mosteller