Numbers don't lie, people do.

Posted by Ben Simo

“despite its mathematical base, 
statistics is as much an art as it is a science.
… Often the statistician must choose among methods,
a subjective process,
and find the one
 that he will use to represent the facts.
This suggests giving statistical material …
a very sharp second look
 before accepting any of them. …
But arbitrarily rejecting statistical methods 
makes no sense either.

That is like refusing to read 
because writers sometimes
use words to hide facts and relationships
rather than to reveal them.”

- Darrell Huff,
How To Lie With Statistics, 1954


“No doubt 
some graphics do distort
 the underlying data,
making it hard for the viewer 
to learn the truth.
But data graphics are no different 
from words in this regard,
for any means of communication 
can be used to deceive.”

- Edward Tufte,
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information