Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
Well you know what the first author on that list said, right?
"lies, damn lies, and statistics"
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An equally useless fact: although Mark Twain popularised the phrase, he didn't claim to have invented it. As Wiki says:
Quote:
Mark Twain popularized the saying in "Chapters from My Autobiography", published in the North American Review in 1906. "Figures often beguile me," he wrote, "particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'"
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"Disraeli" of course refers to the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli. Although, interestingly, the phrase hasn't been found in anything that Disraeli wrote.