Quotessence
Home / Topics / Probability Quotes

Probability Quotes

Browse 544 quotes about Probability.

Related topics

IfsSciencePeopleCertaintyMenEventsChanceMayTheoryFactsKnowsWorldLawPossibilityShouldThinkingDoeStatisticsHigherMathematicsWayWould BeBelieveDegreesHappensImpossibleReasonHas BeensHumansMathematicalStatesWantMindNumbersProcessRiskTwoGivingMathMatterNextProbability TheoryBeliefConsequenceExistenceGivenLooksLowsPhysicsUniverseUseZeroCasesCausesCommonEarthIncreaseLogicProblemRangeRealityTryingWellsWholeAbsolutesCertainDecisionDifferentEvidenceGreaterInvestingMadeNeedsPercentResultsSidesYearsChoicesConceptsDesireDiesErrorsFallFirstsIgnoranceInformationLevelsLyingMightModernOrderOughtPersonsRealReasonableTermActionAnswersArtCalculusmore

Probability Quotes

“The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed by the great philosopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised.”

ShouldFirstsMayEyeImaginationExistenceDoubtStudentsTruth IsDegreesFoundationRaisedDefeatPhilosopherFranceEnterpriseRemoveProbabilityEmbarrassmentObjectionsEndeavourIntricatePinnacleRetardSolid FoundationGreat Philosophers
Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
Create image

“We cannot judge either of the feelings or of the characters of men with perfect accuracy from their actions or their appearance in public; it is from their careless conversations, their half-finished sentences, that we may hope with the greatest probability of success to discover their real characters.”

MenMayRealCharacterFeelingsActionPerfectHalfJudgingConversationAppearanceSentencesFinishedProbabilityCarelessAccuracyReal CharacterCharacter Of A Man
Book:Castle Rackrent
Create image

“I believe the calculation of the quantity of probability might be improved to a very useful and pleasant speculation, and applied to a great many events which are accidental, besides those of games; only these cases would be infinitely more confused, as depending on chances which the most part of men are ignorant of.”

MenBelieveMightWould BeGamesI BelieveChanceCasesEventsIgnorantPleasantConfusedGreat MenQuantityProbabilitySpeculationCalculations
Book:Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot
Create image

“A point of great importance would be first to know: what is the capacity of the earth? And what charge does it contain if electrified? Though we have no positive evidence of a charged body existing in space without other oppositely electrified bodies being near, there is a fair probability that the earth is such a body, for by whatever process it was separated from other bodies - and this is the accepted view of its origin - it must have retained a charge, as occurs in all processes of mechanical separation.”

IfsKnowsFirstsDoeBodyWould BeEarthProcessSpaceViewsEvidenceCapacityFairsImportanceAcceptedSeparationProbability
Book:The Nikola Tesla Treasury
Create image

“There is nothing in the nature of a miracle that should render it incredible:;: its credibility depends upon the nature of the evidence by which it is supported. An event of extreme probability will not necessarily command our belief unless upon a sufficiency of proof; and so an event which we may regard as highly improbable may command our belief if it is sustained by sufficient evidence. So that the credibility or incredibility of an event does not rest upon the nature of the event itself, but depends upon the nature and sufficiency of the proof which sustains it.”

IfsShouldMayDoeBeliefEventsDependsEvidenceMiracleRegardIncrediblesExtremesProofCommandSufficientProbabilityCredibilityImprobableSufficiency
Book:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
Create image

“It is natural to men to judge of things less known, by some similitude they observe, or think they observe, between them and things more familiar or better known. In many cases, we have no better way of judging. And, where the things compared have really a great similitude in their nature, when there is reason to think that they are subject to the same laws, there may be a considerable degree of probability in conclusions drawn from analogy.”

ThinkingMenWayMayReasonLawNaturalKnownCasesSubjectsJudgingDegreesFamiliarConclusionProbabilityBetter WaysAnalogies
Book:Philosophical works
Create image

“The first attempts to consider the behavior of so-called "random neural nets" in a systematic way have led to a series of problems concerned with relations between the "structure" and the "function" of such nets. The "structure" of a random net is not a clearly defined topological manifold such as could be used to describe a circuit with explicitly given connections. In a random neural net, one does not speak of "this" neuron synapsing on "that" one, but rather in terms of tendencies and probabilities associated with points or regions in the net.”

WayFirstsDoeProblemUsedSpeakGivenTermBehaviorConcernedConnectionsFunctionRelationStructureSeriesTendenciesDefinedRegionsProbabilitySystematicCircuitsNeuronsManifold
Author:Anatol Rapoport
Create image

“Following Korzybski, I put things in probabilities, not absolutes... My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts and, of course, conspiracy theory.”

HardLyingCoursesAttitudeTheoryAbsolutesFollowingPhysicsHardestIdeologyConspiracyOriginalityProbabilityJuryConspiracy TheoryVerdictScience Physics
Author:Robert Anton Wilson
Create image

“I am now about to set seriously to work upon preparing for the press an account of my theory of Logic and Probabilities which in its present state I look upon as the most valuable if not the only valuable contribution that I have made or am likely to make to Science and the thing by which I would desire if at all to be remembered hereafter.”

IfsLooksMadeStatesDesireTheoryLogicAccountsPressesValuableRememberedContributionLook UpPreparingProbabilityHereafter
Author:George Boole
Create image

“I am fully assured, that no general method for the solution of questions in the theory of probabilities can be established which does not explicitly recognize, not only the special numerical bases of the science, but also those universal laws of thought which are the basis of all reasoning, and which, whatever they may be as to their essence, are at least mathematical as to their form.”

MayDoeFormLawSpecialTheorySolutionsEssenceUniversalBasesMethodMathematicalReasoningProbabilityAssuredUniversal Laws
Book:Collected Logical Works
Create image

“Without doubt, matter is unlimited in extent, and, in this sense, infinite; and the forces of Nature mould it into an innumerable number of worlds. Would it be at all astonishing if, from the universal dice-box, out of an innumberable number of throws, there should be thrown out one world infinitely perfect? Nay, does not the calculus of probabilities prove to us that one such world out of an infinite number, must be produced of necessity?”

IfsWorldShouldDoeMatterForcePerfectNumbersDoubtProveUniversalInfiniteBoxesThrownUnlimitedProbabilityAstonishingDiceCalculusMouldForces Of Nature
Author:William Batchelder Greene
Create image

“Have I ever remarked on how completely ridiculous it is to ask high school students to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives and give them nearly no support in doing so? Support like, say, spending a day apiece watching twenty different jobs and then another week at their top three choices, with salary charts and projections and probabilities of graduating that subject given their test scores? The more so considering this is a central allocation question for the entire economy?”

WantGivingDifferentSchoolJobsChoicesThreeAsksGivenSupportEconomyWeekSubjectsStudentsHigh SchoolTestsTwentiesSpendingRidiculousScoreGraduatesConsideringProbabilitySalaryProjectionDifferent JobsAllocationHigh School StudentsTest Scores
Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
Create image

“The engine driving the Kelly system is the "law of large numbers." In a 1713 treatise on probability, Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli propounded a law that has been misunderstood by gamblers (and investors) ever since.”

Has BeensLawNumbersDrivingInvestorsEnginesMathematicianProbabilityMisunderstoodLarge NumbersSwiss
Book:Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
Create image

“Okay, look at it this way: if the evening news has a very high probability of being accurate, then it's highly improbable that they would inaccurately report the numbers chosen in the lottery. That counterbalances any improbability in the choosing of those numbers, so you're quite rational to believe in this highly improbable event.”

IfsWayBelieveLooksNumbersEventsNewsOkayChosenRationalEveningReportsAccurateProbabilityLotteryImprobableImprobability
Author:William Lane Craig
Create image

“The endeavor of scientific research to see events in their more general connection in order to determine their laws, is a legitimate and useful occupation. Any protest against such efforts, in the name of freefom from restrictive conditions, would be fruitless if science did not naïvely identify the abstractions called rules and laws with the actually efficacious forces, and confuse the probability that B will follow A with the actual effort make B follow A.”

IfsWould BeLawOrderNamesForceEffortConditionsEventsResearchConnectionsDetermineProtestOccupationEndeavorProbabilityAbstractionScientific Research
Author:Max Horkheimer
Create image

“You travel life has the aspect of a dream. It is something outside the normal, yet you are in it. It is peopled with characters you have never seen before and in all probability will never see again. It brings occasional homesickness, and loneliness, and pangs of longing ... But you are like the Vikings who have gone into a world of adventure, and home is not home until you return.”

WorldCharacterHomeDreamGoneLonelinessAdventureReturnNormalAspectLongingProbabilityOccasionalVikingsHomesickness
Author:Agatha Christie
Create image

“The issue, as correctly emphasized by Carl Sagan, is the probability of the evolution of high intelligence and an electronic civilization on an inhabited world. Once we have life (and almost surely it will be very different from life on Earth), what is the probability of its developing a lineage with high intelligence? On Earth, among millions of lineages of organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence; this makes me believe in its utter improbability.”

WorldBelieveDifferentEarthMillionsIssuesEventsEvolutionCivilizationBillionsAstronomyDevelopingOrganismsProbabilityLineageImprobabilitySaganSpeciation
Author:Ernst Mayr
Create image

“We come finally, however, to the relation of the ideal theory to real world, or "real" probability. If he is consistent a man of the mathematical school washes his hands of applications. To someone who wants them he would say that the ideal system runs parallel to the usual theory: "If this is what you want, try it: it is not my business to justify application of the system; that can only be done by philosophizing; I am a mathematician". In practice he is apt to say: "try this; if it works that will justify it".”

IfsMenWorldWantTryingRealDoneHandsRunningSchoolPracticeTheoryIdealsRelationMathematicsMathWhat You WantMathematicalConsistentJustifyReal WorldApplicationUsualMathematicianProbabilityParallels
Author:John Edensor Littlewood
Create image

“The atheist, agnostic, or secularist ... should insist on the need to engage in a meaningful debate on the entire issue of the truth or falsity (or probability or improbability) of religious tenets, without being subject to accusations of impiety, immorality, impoliteness, or any of the other smokescreens used by the pious to deflect attention from the central issues at hand.”

NeedsShouldHandsUsedReligiousAttentionIssuesAtheismSubjectsAtheistPositive AtheismDebateMeaningfulAgnosticProbabilityPiousAccusationImmoralityFalsityImprobability
Author:S. T. Joshi
Create image

“According to PhD astrophysicists and qualified American science professors, the odds of the more than 2,500 prophecies found in the Bible being fulfilled by chance are 1 with 2,000 zeros after it. According to the mathematical science of probability, if a number has more than 50 zeros after it, the odds of that happening by chance is virtually impossible. This is irrefutable proof that the Bible is inspired by God!”

IfsFoundChanceNumbersImpossibleHappeningsInspiredProofMathematicalProfessorsOddsFulfilledProphecyProbabilityQualifiedChances ArePhds
Author:Hugh Ross
Create image

“If to enjoy even an enjoyable present we must have the assurance of a happy future, we are “crying for the moon.” We have no such assurance. The best predictions are still matters of probability rather than certainty, and to the best of our knowledge every one of us is going to suffer and die. If, then, we cannot live happily without an assured future, we are certainly not adapted to living in a finite world where, despite the best plans, accidents will happen, and where death comes at the end.”

IfsWorldStillsEndsMatterHappensSufferingDiesEnjoyPlansCryMoonAccidentsDespiteCertaintyPredictionsProbabilityFiniteAssuranceAssuredEnjoyableAdaptedIf Then
Book:The Wisdom of Insecurity
Create image

“If often happens too, both in courts and in cabinets, that there are two things going on together,--a main plot and an under-plot; and he that understands only one of them will, in all probability, be the dupe of both. A mistress may rule a monarch, but some obscure favorite may rule the mistress.”

IfsMayTwoHappensTogetherCourtTwo ThingsPlotObscureProbabilityIntrigueMistressCabinetsMonarchsDupes
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
Create image

“Women are sometimes drawn in to believe against probability by the unwillingness they have to doubt their own merit.”

BelieveSometimesDoubtMeritProbabilityCredulity
Book:Letters and passages restored from the original manuscripts of the History of Clarissa. To which is subjoined, a collection of such of the moral and instructive sentiments ... contained in the History, as are presumed to be of general use and service ... Published for the sake of doing justice to the purchasers of the first two editions of that work
Create image

“According to theism, if a universe is to have any probability of existing, this probability is dependent upon God's beliefs, desires and creative acts. But the Hartle-Hawking probability is not dependent on any supernatural considerations; Hartle and Hawking do not sum over anything supernatural in their path integral derivation of the probability amplitude.”

IfsDesireReligionUniverseBeliefCreativePathDependentConsiderationProbabilityTheism
Author:Quentin Smith
Create image