“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”
- November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910
- American
- Author, humorist, and lecturer
- Wrote masterpieces such as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and had a major influence on American literature
Quote
“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”
Explanation
Mark Twain’s quote humorously critiques the way statistics can be manipulated or twisted to support a particular argument or viewpoint, while facts remain unchanging and resistant to distortion. While facts are concrete and objective, statistics can be presented or interpreted in ways that can lead to misleading conclusions. The humor lies in the irony that while facts are supposed to represent truth, statistics, which are meant to clarify or explain, are often more flexible and open to manipulation. Twain’s words point to the subjective nature of data interpretation, showing how easily statistics can be adjusted or shaped to fit a narrative, even if they don’t truly reflect the reality of the facts.
This quote is a satirical commentary on the manipulation of numbers in fields like politics, economics, or advertising, where statistics are often used to convince or influence others, despite their inherent flexibility. Twain suggests that while we may rely on statistics to make sense of complex information, we should be cautious of how they are presented and recognize that they don’t always tell the whole story.
In modern contexts, this quote resonates with the use of statistics in media, polls, and studies, where numbers are often used to support specific agendas or make data seem more convincing than it truly is. Twain’s words remind us to always question the way statistics are framed, and to be mindful of the potential for bias in the presentation of data. His humor encourages us to focus on the facts and approach statistics with a healthy dose of skepticism.
