How to Lie with Statistics

by Darrell Huff

“Does it make sense?” will often cut a statistic down to size when the whole rigmarole is based on an unproved assumption.

Many a statistic is false on its face. It gets by only because the magic of numbers brings about a suspension of common sense.

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.