Quote: He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support rather than for illumination (Request help)

[Stephen Goranson]

1903 A.E. Housman
Main Author:    Manilius, Marcus.
Other Authors:  Housman, A. E. 1859-1936.
Language(s):    Latin ; English
Published:      Londini, Apud Grant Richards, 1903-1930.
5 vols
vol. 1 (1903) p. liii
"And critics who treat MS evidence as rational men treat all evidence, and test it by reason and by the knowledge which they have acquired, these are blamed for rashness and capriciousness by gentlemen who use MSS as drunkards use lamp-posts,--not to light them on their way but to dissimulate their instability."

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/


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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2014 2:18 AM
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Subject: [ADS-L] Quote: He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts              - for              support rather than for illumination (Request help)

Back on March 5, 2013 Victor Steinbok initiated a thread that
discussed several quotations including a version of the following
saying which now has an entry on the Quote Investigator website:

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support
rather than for illumination
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/15/stats-drunk/

Thanks to Victor and the discussion participants. Appreciation to
George Thompson whose recent inquiry gave new impetus to this effort.
Thanks to Barry for his very valuable work on this saying.

One interesting citation still requires verification. If you wish to
help and your library has the "University of Toronto Monthly" in 1937
please let me know. Here is the data for the cite that must be checked
on paper (or with scans). The data has been extracted from Google
Books:

[ref] 1937, University of Toronto Monthly, Volume 37, Issue 7, Address
by Lord Tweedsmuir (Governor-General of Canada) to the Ontario
Educational Association in Convocation Hall of the University of
Toronto on March 29 1937, Start Page 185, Quote Page 185, University
of Toronto Alumni Association, Toronto, Canada. (Google Books Snippet
View only; this metadata has not yet been verified on paper and may be
inaccurate)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
I remember that the famous Cambridge classical scholar and poet, the
late A. E. Housman, once criticised an Oxford colleague for his use of
texts, with that acerbity which unhappily appears in classical
scholarship, especially when the disputants belong to different
universities. "Mr So-and-so," he said, "uses texts much as a drunk man
uses lamp-posts, not for the purpose of illumination, but to correct
his instability."
[End excerpt]

Garson

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