Chance quotes
From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
George_E_P_Box
Slow Progress
“History shows that the human animal has always learned but progress used to be very slow. This was because learning often depended on the chance coming together of a potentially informative event on the one hand and a perceptive observer on the other. Scientific method accelerated that process.”
- Source: George E.P. Box, in the article ‘Total Quality: Its Origins and its Future’, published 1995 at the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement.
- Keywords: History_quotes Learning_quotes Humanity_quotes Progress_quotes Chance_quotes Randomness_quotes Perception_quotes Observation_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Show_quotes Animal_quotes Slow_quotes Depend_quotes Potential_quotes Information_quotes Event_quotes Hand_quotes Acceleration_quotes Process_quotes
Robert_N_Britcher
Sources of Failures
“I never ran a test that didn't find at least one failure - not only is the software impure, but so are the requirements specifications. And every time we fix the software, there is a 10 percent chance - according to my anecdotal studies - we'll inject another fault. Those are the hardest to find: the faults that result from trying to get rid of them.”
- Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 56.
- Keywords: Testing_quotes Failure_quotes Software_quotes Impurity_quotes Requirements_quotes Specification_quotes Repair_quotes Fix_quotes Fault_quotes Injection_quotes Hard_quotes Debugging_quotes Run_quotes Find_quotes Time_quotes Chance_quotes Anecdotal_quotes Study_quotes Result_quotes Try_quotes Rid_quotes
Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
Flow
“In our studies, we found that every flow activity, whether it involved competition, chance, or any other dimension of experience, had this in common: It provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed-of states of consciousness. In short, it transformed the self by making it more complex. In this growth of the self lies the key to flow activities.”
- Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “Flow Activities”, page 74. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
- Keywords: Flow_quotes Activity_quotes Involve_quotes Competition_quotes Chance_quotes Dimension_quotes Experience_quotes Common_quotes Provide_quotes Sense_quotes Discovery_quotes Creative_quotes Feel_quotes Transport_quotes Person_quotes Reality_quotes Push_quotes Higher_quotes Level_quotes Performance_quotes Led_quotes Previous_quotes Undream_quotes Dream_quotes State_quotes Consciousness_quotes Transform_quotes Self_quotes Make_quotes Complex_quotes Growth_quotes Key_quotes
David_Epstein
Slice and Dice
“Slice and dice enough, and you’ll always alight on a false-positive association just due to chance.”
- Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 38. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
- Keywords: Slice_quotes Dice_quotes Enough_quotes Always_quotes Alight_quotes False_quotes Positive_quotes Association_quotes Due_quotes Chance_quotes
Researcher Freedom
“The problem of researcher freedom leading to false conclusions is now known to be pervasive in science. The age of big data and big-database software makes it easier than ever to mix and match statistics in pursuit of positive results that are likely just artifacts of chance.”
- Source: David Epstein in the book “Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better”. Published 2026 by Riverhead Books. Page 38. ISBN 978-0593715734 (Ebook).
- Keywords: Problem_quotes Research_quotes Freedom_quotes Lead_quotes False_quotes Conclusion_quotes Know_quotes Now_quotes Pervasive_quotes Science_quotes Age_quotes Big_quotes Data_quotes Database_quotes Software_quotes Make_quotes Easy_quotes Mix_quotes Match_quotes Statistics_quotes Pursuit_quotes Positive_quotes Result_quotes Likely_quotes Artifact_quotes Chance_quotes
Geoffrey_Jefferson
No Mechanism Could Feel
“Not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain - that is, not only write it but know that it had written it. No mechanism could feel (and not merely artificially signal, an easy contrivance) pleasure at its successes, grief when its valves fuse, be warmed by flattery, be made miserable by its mistakes, be charmed by sex, be angry or depressed when it cannot get what it wants.”
- Source: Geoffrey Jefferson delivering The Lister Oration at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 1949-06-09. Published in the British Medical Journal of 1949-06-25, volume 1, issue 4616, pages 1105-1110. DOI 10.1136/bmj.1.4616.1105.
- Keywords: Machine_quotes Write_quotes Sonnet_quotes Compose_quotes Concerto_quotes Thought_quotes Emotion_quotes Feel_quotes Chance_quotes Fall_quotes Symbol_quotes Agree_quotes Equal_quotes Brain_quotes Know_quotes Artificial_quotes Signal_quotes Easy_quotes Contrivance_quotes Pleasure_quotes Success_quotes Grief_quotes Valve_quotes Fuse_quotes Warm_quotes Flattery_quotes Misery_quotes Mistake_quotes Charm_quotes Sex_quotes Anger_quotes Depression_quotes Want_quotes Get_quotes
Bernardo_Kastrup
Meaningful Coincidence
“Although I do believe that many — even most — experiences of meaningful coincidence are illusory, being mediated by relatively prosaic psychological mechanisms, my own experiences make it very difficult for me to dismiss Jung’s case. In the course of my life, the archetypal meaning occasionally evoked by events in the world around me — in precise alignment with my own inner state, or that of someone close to me — has been just too compelling to attribute to chance or cognitive bias.”
- Source: From “Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe”. Written by Bernardo Kastrup. Published by IFF Books, Washington DC. Kindle Edition. Page 55-56. Chapter 4.
- Keywords: Believe_quotes Experience_quotes Meaning_quotes Coincidence_quotes Illusion_quotes Mediation_quotes Relative_quotes Prosaic_quotes Psychology_quotes Mechanism_quotes Difficult_quotes Dismiss_quotes Jungian_quotes Course_quotes Life_quotes Archetypal_quotes Occasional_quotes Evoke_quotes Event_quotes World_quotes Around_quotes Precise_quotes Alignment_quotes Inner_quotes State_quotes Someone_quotes Close_quotes Compelling_quotes Attribute_quotes Chance_quotes Cognitive_quotes Bias_quotes Random_quotes
Pierre-Simon_Laplace
System of Nature
“The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what it was in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence that at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respective position, motions, and general affects of all these entities at any time in the past or future. Physical astronomy, the branch of knowledge that does the greatest honor to the human mind, gives us an idea, albeit imperfect, of what such an intelligence would be. The simplicity of the law by which the celestial bodies move, and the relations of their masses and distances, permit analysis to follow their motions up to a certain point; and in order to determine the state of the system of these great bodies in past or future centuries, it suffices for the mathematician that their position and their velocity be given by observation for any moment in time. Man owes that advantage to the power of the instrument he employs, and to the small number of relations that it embraces in its calculations. But ignorance of the different causes involved in the production of events, as well as their complexity, taken together with the imperfection of analysis, prevents our reaching the same certainty about the vast majority of phenomena. Thus there are things that are uncertain for us, things more or less probable, and we seek to compensate for the impossibility of knowing them by determining their different degrees of likelihood. So it was that we owe to the weakness of the human mind one of the most delicate and ingenious of mathematical theories, the science of chance or probability.”
- Source: Pierre-Simon Laplace, 'Recherches, 1º, sur l'Intégration des Équations Différentielles aux Différences Finies, et sur leur Usage dans la Théorie des Hasards' (1773, published 1776). In Oeuvres complètes de Laplace, 14 Vols. (1843-1912), Vol. 8, 144-5, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 26.
- Keywords: State_quotes Present_quotes System_quotes Nature_quotes Consequence_quotes Moment_quotes Precede_quotes Conceive_quotes Intelligence_quotes Instant_quotes Comprehension_quotes Relationship_quotes Universe_quotes Position_quotes Motion_quotes Causality_quotes Time_quotes Past_quotes Future_quotes Astronomy_quotes Knowledge_quotes Humanity_quotes Mind_quotes Idea_quotes Imperfect_quotes Law_quotes Celestial_quotes Body_quotes Mass_quotes Distance_quotes Analysis_quotes Determine_quotes Century_quotes Mathematics_quotes Velocity_quotes Observation_quotes Advantage_quotes Power_quotes Instrument_quotes Calculation_quotes Ignorance_quotes Cause_quotes Production_quotes Event_quotes Complexity_quotes Certainty_quotes Majority_quotes Phenomena_quotes Probability_quotes Impossibility_quotes Likelihood_quotes Weakness_quotes Theory_quotes Chance_quotes
J_Robert_Oppenheimer
World Going to Hell
“It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.”
- Source: Attributed to Oppenheimer by Alan Watts in Play to Live: Lectures of Alan Watts (1982) by Alan Watts [Author], Mark Watts [Editor, Photographer]Robert Oppenheimer.
- Keywords: Perfect_quotes Obvious_quotes World_quotes Hell_quotes Possibility_quotes Chance_quotes Attempt_quotes Prevent_quotes Do_quotes Go_quotes
Blaise_Pascal
Pascal's Wager
“A game is on, at the other end of this infinite distance, and heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager? According to reason you cannot leave either; according to reason you cannot leave either undone... Yes, but wager you must; there is no option, you have embarked on it. So which will you have. Come. Since you must choose, let us see what concerns you least. You have two things to lose: truth and good, and two things to stake: your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness. And your nature has two things to shun: error and misery. Your reason does not suffer by your choosing one more than the other, for you must choose. That is one point cleared. But your happiness? Let us weigh gain and loss in calling heads that God is. Reckon these two chances: if you win, you win all; if you lose, you lose naught. Then do not hesitate, wager that He is.”
- Source: Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1670), Section I, aphorism 223. In H. F. Stewart (ed.), Pascal's Pensées (1950), 117-119.
- Keywords: Game_quotes Infinity_quotes Distance_quotes Head_quotes Tail_quotes Wager_quotes Chance_quotes Reason_quotes Option_quotes Embark_quotes Choice_quotes Concern_quotes Loss_quotes Truth_quotes Good_quotes Stake_quotes Will_quotes Knowledge_quotes Happiness_quotes Nature_quotes Shun_quotes Error_quotes Misery_quotes Suffering_quotes Gain_quotes God_quotes Deity_quotes Winning_quotes Hesitate_quotes Weigh_quotes
Louis_Pasteur
Preparation for Observation
“In the fields of observation chance favors only those minds which are prepared.”
- Source: Inaugural lecture as professor and dean of the faculty of science, University of Lille, Douai, France, December 7, 1854
- Keywords: Field_quotes Observation_quotes Chance_quotes Favor_quotes Mind_quotes Preparation_quotes
Rebecca_Shafir
Misunderstanding
“Here’s an alarming fact: of approximately eight hundred thousand words in the English language, we use about eight hundred on a regular basis. Those eight hundred words have fourteen thousand meanings. By division there are about seventeen meanings per word. In other words, we have a one-in-seventeen chance of being understood as we intended. Perhaps you’ve heard of Chisholm’s Third Law — If you explain something so clearly that no one can misunderstand, someone will.”
- Source: From the book “The Zen of Listening: Mindful Communication in the Age of Distraction”, written by Rebecca Z. Shafir, published by Quest Books in 2003. ISBN: 978-0835608268,
- See Also:
Rupert_Sheldrake
Evolutionary Randomness
“In neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory randomness plays a central role through the chance mutations of genes, which are quantum events. With different chance events, evolution would happen differently.”
- Source: Rupert Sheldrake. The book “Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery”, Prologue, page 15. Published in 2012 by Crown Publishing, New York, NY. Kindle Edition. ISBN: 978-0-7704-3671-1.
