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Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment.

Statistics do not convey emotion. They shock us for a minute or two, and then we click again.

I think statistics go in one ear and out the other. All of us respond to stories more than numbers.

I found out that smoking is the leading cause of statistics.

Obviously, stats are important tools, but I think there's something behind those things; somewhere along the way, you've got to try to look inside someone.

It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.

By relying on the statistical information rather than a gut feeling, you allow the data to lead you to be in the right place at the right time. To remain as emotionally free from the hurly burley of the here and now is one of the only ways to succeed.

We historians are increasingly using experimental psychology to understand the way we act. It is becoming very clear that our ability to evaluate risk is hedged by all sorts of cognitive biases. It's a miracle that we get anything right.

Except for some effects that I attribute mostly to age, my intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the planning fallacy as it was before I made a study of these issues.

There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.