[WikiEN-l] Lies, damned lies, and statistics

[Surreptitiousness]

Jay Litwyn wrote:
> "Durova" <nadezhda.durova at gmail.com> quoted Samuel Clemens in message 
> news:a01006d90904151712x2e95f41r9c2dcf17a4dcbcef at mail.gmail.com...
>   
>> "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics".  - 
>> Mark
>> Twain
>>     
>
> In book called "They never said it!", that is identified as apocryphal, 
> which means that he did not write it (maybe I can find a finer criterion 
> printed in the book). It is a lot of fun to say it, though, so if he said it 
> once, then he probably said it a few times. Einstein said something like it 
> on a sign that hung at his door:
> "
> Not everything that can be counted counts.
> Not everything that counts can be counted.
> " 
>   

My book of quotes (Chambers Dictionary of Quotations) says Clemens 
attributed it to D'Israeli, citing as source Mark Twain ''Autobiography, 
vol.1 (1924). So although Clemens may have said it, he wasn't first, or 
at least didn't think he was first. And it does have the ring of 
D'Israeli, regardless of whether D'Israeli ever said it. After writing 
all that, I turned to Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics

We really aren't half bad, are we?