Marshall Monroe Kirkman - The Science of Railways (1894)

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We search in vain for any mention of the statistician in our directories. Strange omission! Where shall we look for him, what cover lift; what mask pluck off? He lives under a nom de plume. His titles are as multitudinous as the stars, and his costumes as shifting as the clouds.

Marshall Monroe Kirkman

Statistics are like accounts. The latter cannot be explained: they must be pored over as we would study an algebraic problem. Only men driven thereto or who possess a stout resolution are able to do this.

Marshall Monroe Kirkman

Man's ambition finds its reflection in the statistician's work. While the former has absorbed all that has gone before, the statistician recounts the facts of history, often in secret, attributing their potency to his own agency. Vain conceit!

Marshall Monroe Kirkman

Statistics are the electric lights thrown on industrial and social affairs, illuminating the acts of all concerned.

Marshall Monroe Kirkman

The itch of inquiry is ever vehement in him [the statistician], and he attaches himself to new questions as buoys made to float him into paradise.

Marshall Monroe Kirkman