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Probability Quotes

Browse 544 quotes about Probability.

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Probability Quotes

“It is a well-known fact that in countries in which the national debt is properly funded, and an object of established confidence, it answers most of the purposes of money. Transfers of stock, or public debt, are there equivalent to payments in specie; or, in other words, stock, in the principal transactions of business, passes current as specie. The same thing would, in all probability, happen here, under the like circumstances.”

WellsCountryFactsHappensPurposeAnswersKnownObjectsCircumstancesCurrentsDebtBudgetsPrincipalWell KnownProbabilityPaymentTransfersTransactionsNational Debt
Book:The Vision of Hamilton: Hamilton's 4 Reports and LaRouche's 4 Laws
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“Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous - almost of pedantic - veracity, that the experienced angler is seen.”

PeopleLyingAbilityMistakeAirMereDetailsImpressionManageUselessFishingProbabilityFishermanBlushingFabricationVeracityAnglersPedantic
Book:Jerome K. Jerome: 14 Books in 1
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“However, the small probability of a similar encounter [of the earth with a comet], can become very great in adding up over a huge sequence of centuries. It is easy to picture to oneself the effects of this impact upon the Earth. The axis and the motion of rotation changed; the seas abandoning their old position to throw themselves toward the new equator; a large part of men and animals drowned in this universal deluge, or destroyed by the violent tremor imparted to the terrestrial globe.”

MenEarthScienceEasyAnimalSeaEffectsCenturyPositionChangedHugeUniversalImpactOneselfViolentDestroyedEncountersGlobesProbabilitySequenceAxesCometsRotationDelugeEquator
Author:Pierre-Simon Laplace
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“The earth in its rapid motion round the sun possesses a degree of living force so vast that, if turned into the equivalent of heat, its temperature would be rendered at least one thousand times greater than that of red-hot iron, and the globe on which we tread would in all probability be rendered equal in brightness to the sun itself.”

IfsWould BeEarthScienceForceSunGreaterThousandEqualDegreesRedHotRoundsHeatIronGlobesProbabilityRapidsTemperatureBrightnessRed Hot
Author:James Prescott Joule
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“Regarding the air raid over Los Angeles it was learned by Army G2 that Rear Admiral Anderson...recovered an unidentified airplane off the coast of California...with no bearing on conventional explanation. This Headquarters has come to the determination that the mystery airplanes are in fact not earthly and, according to secret intelligence sources, they are in all probability of interplanetary origin.”

FactsSecretAirMysterySourceDeterminationArmyCaliforniaExplanationLos AngelesAirplaneConventionalCoastProbabilityUfoHeadquartersAdmiralSecret Intelligence
Author:George C. Marshall
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“Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”

IfsWarFactsLeaderOpinionInvolvedRussiaBombsJapanInvestigationProbabilityTestimonySurvivingInvasionNovemberDecemberSurveysAtomic BombHiroshimaHiroshima And NagasakiAtomic WarDropping Bombs
Author:Paul Nitze
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“As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial account of my death and dying speech, I take this early opportunity of contradicting the first, and of assuring you, that I have not as yet composed the latter. But by the All-Powerful Dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!”

FirstsHumansHas BeensTwoOpportunitySidesPowerfulFourHeardDyingSpeechExpectationsShotsAccountsHorseLatterCompanionDeath And DyingProtectedProvidenceBulletsCoatsProbabilityArrivalsContradicting
Book:Life of George Washington
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“It is only through the psyche that we can establish that God acts upon us, but we are unable to distinguish whether these actions emanate from God or from the unconscious. We cannot tell whether God and the unconscious are two different entities. Both are border-line concepts for transcendental contents. But empirically it can be established, with a sufficient degree of probability, that there is in the unconscious an archetype of wholeness.”

DoeTwoDifferentSelfActionLinesSpecialDegreesConceptsBordersSufficientUnconsciousEntityWholenessProbabilityTranscendentalGod ImageArchetypeEmanate
Author:Carl Jung
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“Coincidences, in general, are great stumbling blocks in the way of that class of thinkers who have been educated to know nothing of the theory of probabilities- that theory to which the most glorious objects of human research are indebted for the most glorious of illustration.”

KnowsWayHumansHas BeensClassObjectsTheoryResearchBlockEducatedGloriousThinkerCoincidenceProbabilityIllustrationStumblingIndebtedStumbling BlocksProbability Theory
Author:Edgar Allan Poe
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“The percent likelihood of a society becoming physically violent if it is physically affectionate towards its infants and tolerant of premarital sexual behavior is 2 percent. The probability of this relationship occurring by chance is 125,000 to one. I am not aware of any other developmental variable that has such a high degree of predictive validity.”

IfsChanceSocietyBecomingDegreesBehaviorPercentViolentProbabilityInfantChances AreValidityVariablesAffectionateLikelihoodDevelopmental
Author:James W. Prescott
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“Certainty is not biologically possible. We must learn (and teach our children) to tolerate the unpleasantness of uncertainty. Science has given us the language and tools of probabilities. We have methods for analyzing and ranking opinion according to their likelihood of correctness. That is enough.”

ChildrenEnoughLanguageGivenOpinionTeachHumilityToolsOur ChildrenMethodCertaintyUncertaintyTolerateProbabilityCorrectnessLikelihoodAnalyzingRanking
Author:Robert A. Burton
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“So in this case, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering' - then you should abandon them.”

KnowsShouldSufferingBeliefViewsQualityCasesTeacherWiseBuddhismTraditionHarmScriptureBuddhistReportsAgreementAbandonLogicalFree WillLegendsProbabilityAdoptedPonderingAnalogiesContemplativeInferenceConjecture
Author:Gautama Buddha
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“No matter how slick the demo is in rehearsal, when you do it in front of a live audience the probability of a flawless presentation is inversely proportional to the number of people watching, raised to the power of the amount of money involved.”

PeopleMatterNumbersTechnologyAudienceFrontsAmountInvolvedComputerRaisedProgrammingSoftwareProbabilityRehearsalPresentationComputer ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesFlawlessSlickDemosSoftware DevelopmentFunny ComputerProgramming Funny
Author:Mark Gibbs
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“People in suburbia see trees differently than foresters do. They cherish every one. It is useless to speak of the probability that a certain tree will die when the tree is in someone's backyard . . . . You are talking about a personal asset, a friend, a monument, not about board feet of lumber.”

PeopleCertainDiesSpeakTalkingTreeFeetUselessBoardsCherishAssetsProbabilityMonumentBackyardsSuburbiaLumber
Book:Field days: journal of an itinerant biologist
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“Everybody knows you're going to miss some. It's just the reality and the probability of it. It's the ultimate paradox for a kicker. You go out expecting to make every kick, but you also know it's probably not going to happen. So you have these two conflicting thoughts and realities. The really good kickers are the ones who can process that information. That's what I'm learning to do.”

KnowsTwoRealityHappensProcessMissingInformationUltimateKicksParadoxExpectingProbabilityKickersConflicting Thoughts
Author:Nate Kaeding
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“I find that the old Roman baths of this quarter, were found covered by an old burying ground, belonging to the Abbey; through which, in all probability, the water drains in its passage; so that as we drink the decoction of the living bodies at the Pump-room, we swallow the strainings of rotten bones and carcasses at the private bath - I vow to God, the very idea turns my stomach!”

IdeasBodyTurnsFoundWaterRoomsDrinkBonesBelongingCoveredStomachPassagesQuartersProbabilityBathsVowRottenDrainsPumpsAbbeyBurying
Book:The Miscellaneous Works of Tobias Smollett: Sir Launcelot Greaves. Humphry Clinker
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“I've debated many economists who claim to specialize in risk and probability: when one takes them slightly outside their narrow focus, but within the discipline of probability, they fall apart, with the disconsolate face of a gym rat in front of a gangster hit man.”

MenFacesFallFocusRiskFrontsDisciplineClaimsGymRatsProbabilityEconomistFalling ApartGangstersGym Rats
Book:Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
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“An easterly is the most disagreeable wind in Lyme Bay — Lyme Bay being that largest bite from the underside of England's outstretched southwestern leg — and a person of curiosity could at once have deduced several strong probabilities about the pair who began to walk down the quay at Lyme Regis, the small but ancient eponym of the inbite, one incisively sharp and blustery morning in the late March of 1867.”

PersonsStrongWalksMorningWindLateEnglandCuriosityAncientLegsPairsMarchBitesProbabilityDisagreeable
Book:THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN
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“Given our inevitably incomplete knowledge about key structural aspects of our ever-changing economy and the sometimes asymmetric costs or benefits of particular outcomes, a central bank... need to consider not only the most likely future path for the economy but also the distribution of possible outcomes about that path. They then need to reach a judgment about the probabilities, costs, and benefits of the various possible outcomes under alternative choices for policy.”

NeedsSometimesChoicesGivenDecisionEconomyPathRiskPolicyParticularKeysCostBenefitsJudgmentAspectManagementVariousAlternativesOutcomesMakersProbabilityDistributionIncompleteRisk ManagementCentral BanksDecision MakersIncomplete Knowledge
Author:Alan Greenspan
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“If an event can be produced by a number n of different causes, the probabilities of the existence of these causes, given the event (prises de l'événement), are to each other as the probabilities of the event, given the causes: and the probability of each cause is equal to the probability of the event, given that cause, divided by the sum of all the probabilities of the event, given each of the causes.”

IfsDifferentScienceGivenCausesChanceNumbersExistenceEventsEqualDividedProbability
Author:Pierre-Simon Laplace
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“It has been pointed out already that no knowledge of probabilities, less in degree than certainty, helps us to know what conclusions are true, and that there is no direct relation between the truth of a proposition and its probability. Probability begins and ends with probability.”

KnowsHas BeensEndsHelpingTruthDegreesDirectRelationMathematicsMathConclusionCertaintyMathematicalStatisticsProbabilityPropositions
Book:A Treatise on Probability
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“Just as entropy is a measure of disorganization, the information carried by a set of messages is a measure of organization. In fact, it is possible to interpret the information carried by a message as essentially the negative of its entropy, and the negative logarithm of its probability. That is, the more probable the message, the less information it gives. Cliches, for example, are less illuminating than great poems.”

GivingFactsInformationExampleMessagesNegativeOrganizationProbabilityClicheEntropyIlluminatingDisorganization
Book:The human use of human beings: cybernetics and society
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“The possibilities and probabilities are all we have to work with in medicine, though. What we are drawn to in this imperfect science, what we in fact covet in our way, is the alterable moment-the fragile but crystalline opportunity for one's know-how, ability, or just gut instinct to change the course of another's life for the better.”

KnowsWayMomentsFactsCoursesOpportunityAbilityKnow HowPossibilityMedicineInstinctGutsFragileImperfectProbabilityGut Instinct
Book:Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
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