Quote

While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will be up to, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.

Arthur Conan Doyle

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Arthur Conan Doyle
Age: 71 †
Born: 1859
Born: May 22
Died: 1930
Died: July 7
Crime Writer
Essayist
Novelist
Physician
Physician Writer
Playwright
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Edinburgh
Scotland
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle
Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle
Sir A. Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan
Sir Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Never
Average
Precision
Men
Constant
Vary
Number
Puzzles
Foretell
Becomes
Statistics
Insoluble
Example
Mathematical
Statistician
Numbers
Certainty
Aggregate
Says
Individuals
Puzzle
Individual
Remain
Percentages

More quotes by Arthur Conan Doyle

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Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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The mighty voice of Canada will ever call to me.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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It is not that I think or believe, but that I know.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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The setting is a worthy one, if the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men.
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I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by my wrist and pushed me back into my chair. 'It is both, or none,' said he. 'You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?
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It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.
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You mentioned your name as if I should recognize it, but beyond the obvious facts that you are a bachelor, a solicitor, a freemason, and an asthmatic, I know nothing whatever about you.
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It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.
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He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone.
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The more outré and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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Well, well, my dear fellow, be it so. We have shared this same room for some years, and it would be amusing if we ended by sharing the same cell. (...)
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A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel, and should not be hid away, but be exposed for use and ornament.
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It isn't true that the laws of nature have been capriciously disturbed that snakes have talked that women have been turned into salt that rods have brought water out of rocks.
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The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?
Arthur Conan Doyle
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Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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A study of family portraits is enough to convert a man to the theory of reincarnation.
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A sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony.
Arthur Conan Doyle