You’re Probably Right - Part 1
Following are some of the more entertaining quotes regarding the subject of probability. If you're into online casinos and poker rooms etc., we think you'll enjoy them. But then again, we could be wrong.
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
"The probable is what usually happens."
Bertrand, Joseph (1822-1900)
Calcul des probabilites
"How dare we speak of the laws of chance? Is not chance the antithesis of all law?"
Boethius (480-525 CE)
The Consolation of Philosophy
"Chance, too, which seems to rush along with slack reins, is bridled & governed by law."
Boole, George (1815-1864)
An Investigation of the Law of Thought
"Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty & leave neither room or demand for a theory of probabilities."
Born, Max (1882-1970)
"The conception of chance enters in the very first steps of scientific activity in virtue of the fact that no observation is absolutely correct. I think chance is a more fundamental conception that causality; for whether in a concrete case, a cause/effect relation holds or not can only be judged by applying the laws of chance to the observation."
Bulwer, Lytton E.G. (1803-1873)
"Fate laughs at probabilities."
Cardano, Girolamo (1501-1576)
De Vita Propria Liber
"To throw in a fair game of Hazards only 3-spots, when something great is at stake, or some business is the hazard, is a natural occurrence & deserves to be so deemed, and even when they come up the same way for a second time if the throw be repeated. If the third & fourth plays are the same, surely there's occasion for suspicion on the part of a prudent man."
Caesar, Julius (102 BCE-44 BCE)
"Iacta alea est." (The die is cast.)
Christie, Agatha (1890-1976)
The Mirror Cracked
"I think you are begging the question,'' said Haydock, "and I can see looming ahead one of those terrible exercises in probability where 6 men have white hats and 6 men have black hats and you have to work it out by mathematics how likely it is that the hats will get mixed-up & in what proportion. If you start thinking about things like that, you would go around the bend. Let me assure you of that!''
Cicero (106 BCE - 43 BCE)
"Probability is the very guide of life."
Coolidge, Julian Lowell (1873-1954)
In H. Eves, Return to Mathematical Circles
(After proving that the best wagering strategy for Gambler's Ruin was to bet all on the first trial.) "It's true that a man who does this is a fool. I've only proved that a man who does anything else is an even bigger fool."
Davis, Philip (b. 1923) & Hersh, Reuben (b. 1927)
The Mathematical Experience
"How many really basic mathematical objects are there? One is surely the `miraculous' jar of the positive integers 1, 2, 3 . . . Another's the concept of a fair coin. Though gambling was rife in the ancient world and although prominent Greeks & Romans sacrificed to Tyche, the goddess of luck, her coin did not arrive on the mathematical scene until the Renaissance. Perhaps one of the things that had delayed this was a metaphysical position, which held that God speaks to humans through the action of chance... The modern theory begins with the expulsion of Tyche from the Pantheon. There emerges the vision of the fair coin, the biased coin. This coin exists in some mental universe and all modern writers on probability theory have access to it. They toss it regularly & they speculate about what they 'observe.'"
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