On Statisticians (1925 - 1949)

"Behind the adventurer, the speculator, comes that scavenger of adventurers, the statistician. […] The movement of the last hundred years is all in favor of the statistician." (Herbert G Wells, "The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind", 1931)

"Most of us have some idea of what the word statistics means. We should probably say that it has something to do with tables of figures, diagrams and graphs in economic and scientific publications, with the cost of living [...]  and with a host of other seemingly unrelated matters of concern or unconcern [...] Our answer would be on the right lines. Nor should we be unduly upset if, to start with, we seem a little vague. Statisticians themselves disagree about the definition of the word: over a hundred definitions have been listed." (Walter F  Willcox, "An Improved Method of Measuring Public Health in the United States", Revue de l’lnstitut InternutionuIe de Stutistique  vol. 3 (1), 1935)

"To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished is often merely to ask him to conduct a post mortem examination. He can perhaps say what the experiment died of." (Sir Ronald A Fisher, [presidential address] 1938)

"The first act of a scientific statistician is to assess the trustworthiness of his data, to criticize his sources. [...] The statisticians are thinking of scientific method, the literary critics of verbal arrangement." (Major Greenwood, "Medical Statistics from Graunt to Farr", Biometrika Vol. 32 (3/4), 1942)

"An inference, if it is to have scientific value, must constitute a prediction concerning future data. If the inference is to be made purely with the help of the distribution theory of statistics, the experiments that constitute evidence for the inference must arise from a state of statistical control; until that state is reached, there is no universe, normal or otherwise, and the statistician’s calculations by themselves are an illusion if not a delusion. The fact is that when distribution theory is not applicable for lack of control, any inference, statistical or otherwise, is little better than a conjecture. The state of statistical control is therefore the goal of all experimentation." (William E Deming, "Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control", 1939)

“[Statistics] is both a science and an art. It is a science in that its methods are basically systematic and have general application; and an art in that their successful application depends to a considerable degree on the skill and special experience of the statistician, and on his knowledge of the field of application, e.g. economics.” (Leonard H C Tippett, “Statistics”, 1943)

"Errors of the third kind happen in conventional tests of differences of means, but they are usually not considered, although their existence is probably recognized. It seems to the author that there may be several reasons for this among which are 1) a preoccupation on the part of mathematical statisticians with the formal questions of acceptance and rejection of null hypotheses without adequate consideration of the implications of the error of the third kind for the practical experimenter, 2) the rarity with which an error of the third kind arises in the usual tests of significance." (Frederick Mosteller, "A k-Sample Slippage Test for an Extreme Population", The Annals of Mathematical Statistics 19, 1948)

"Everyday life is influenced more and more each day by decisions based on quantitative information. The scientific sequence - hypothesis, experiment, and test hypothesis - is now a familiar approach to problems. Only a few of all those who use it are known popularly as scientists. The distinguishing characteristic of the true scientist is not the fact that he employs scientific methodology, but rather his expertness with it. So it is with the statistician. Nearly everyone, scientists included, draws conclusions from quantitative data. A mark of the true statistician is his special expertness at arranging an investigation and analyzing the result so as to yield the most reliable conclusions with minimum effect." (The Editors, "The Statistician and Everyday Affairs",  The American Statistician Vol. 11 (5),1948)

"The characteristic which distinguishes the present-day professional statistician, is his interest and skill in the measurement of the fallibility of conclusions." (George W Snedecor, "On a Unique Feature of Statistics", [address] 1948)