In listening to stories we tend to suspend disbelief in order to be entertained, whereas in evaluating statistics we generally have an opposite inclination to suspend belief in order not to be beguiled. — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
I used to be surprised and even depressed when I met someone I had admired and discovered him or her to be a jerk… — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
The fashion pages have always baffled me. In my opinion, the articles appear to be full of gobbledygook as to make the astrology column… — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
In the stock market... You can be right for the wrong reasons or wrong for the right reasons. — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
“The nuclear weapons on board just one of our Trident submarines contain eight times the firepower expended in all of World War II.” — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
When asked why he doesn't believe in astrology, the logician Raymond Smullyan responds that he's a Gemini and Geminis never believe in astrology. — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
So many see themselves as aggrieved; so few see themselves as aggrievers. — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
“I sometimes think it would be beneficial if people thought of each other as “historical factorials.” Thus, (Myrtle!) would be understood not just as… — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
Mathematicians are a bit like the laconic Vermonter who, when asked if he's lived in the state his whole life, replies, "Not yet." — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
There is something inhuman and vaguely pornographic about statistics... Pornography, on the other hand, with its loosely bound sequences of storyless sexual couplings often… — John Allen Paulos Copy Share Image
