Probability Quotes

305 quotes by 254 authors

All knowledge resolves itself into probability. ... In every judgment, which we can form concerning probability, as well as concerning knowledge, we ought always to… — David Hume
I am convinced that it is impossible to expound the methods of induction in a sound manner, without resting them upon the theory of probability.… — William Stanley Jevons
Entropy theory, on the other hand, is not concerned with the probability of succession in a series of items but with the overall distribution of… — Rudolf Arnheim
The incomplete knowledge of a system must be an essential part of every formulation in quantum theory. Quantum theoretical laws must be of a statistical… — Werner Heisenberg
The office of science is not to record possibilities; but to ascertain what nature does ... As far as Darwinism deals with mere arguments of… — Louis Agassiz
The theory of probability is the only mathematical tool available to help map the unknown and the uncontrollable. It is fortunate that this tool, while… — Benoit Mandelbrot
As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities. — Charles Darwin
Life cannot have had a random beginning. ... The trouble is that there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all… — Fred Hoyle
Saudi Arabian oil production is at or very near its peak sustainable volume (if it did not, in fact peak almost 25 years ago), and… — Matthew Simmons
We are not good at recognizing distant threats even if their probability is 100%. Society ignoring [peak oil] is like the people of Pompeii ignoring… — James R. Schlesinger
The knowledge of Natural-History, being Observation of Matters of Fact, is more certain than most others, and in my slender Opinion, less subject to Mistakes… — Hans Sloane
The word 'chance' then expresses only our ignorance of the causes of the phenomena that we observe to occur and to succeed one another in… — Pierre-Simon Laplace
Further, the same Arguments which explode the Notion of Luck, may, on the other side, be useful in some Cases to establish a due comparison… — Abraham de Moivre
In some ways more painful is the fact that their experience appears to be fading from the collective memory of humankind. Having never experienced an… — Tadatoshi Akiba
Without any doubt, the regularity which astronomy shows us in the movements of the comets takes place in all phenomena. The trajectory of a simple… — Pierre-Simon Laplace
The theory of probabilities is basically only common sense reduced to a calculus. It makes one estimate accurately what right-minded people feel by a sort… — Pierre-Simon Laplace
Once we see, however, that the probability of life originating at random is so utterly minuscule as to make it absurd, it becomes sensible to… — Fred Hoyle
The probability for the chance of formation of the smallest, simplest form of living organism known is 1 to 10340,000,000.... The size of this figure… — Harold Morowitz
A further aspect I should like to discuss is what I call the practice of infinite escape clauses. I believe we developed this practice to… — Sidney W. Fox
Contrary to the popular notion that only creationism relies on the supernatural, evolutionism must as well, since the probabilities of random formation of life are… — Chandra Wickramasinghe

Who Wrote These Probability Quotes

254 authors contributed a total of 305 Probability Quotes, led by these top contributors: