It was Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli who came up with the adage about "lies, damned lies and statistics," and the potential unreliability of large numbers used to support otherwise flimsy arguments. Twain once stated that he adopted the phrase from the former British Prime Minister, even though it is not in Disraeli's papers, and there is no recorded incident of him uttering it. So maybe Twain should take the kudos. Of course, he was a man - the real Samuel Clemens - who spent his career behind a pseudonym, so it's probably appropriate to give him credit for a ...
