Dennis Lindley quotes:

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  • Uncertainty is a personal matter; it is not the uncertainty but your uncertainty.

  • Utility is the emotion pleading to be let into the house of pure reason and thereby enriching it.

  • It is not surprising that in talking about uncertainty we should lean heavily on facts, just as the court of law does when interrogating witnesses. Facts form a sort of bedrock on which we can build the shifting sands of uncertainty.

  • Almost all thinking people agree that you should not have probability 1 (or 0) for any event, other than one demonstrable by logic, like 2 x 2 = 4.

  • Consider the case of a person who holds a view with probability 1. Then coherence says that it is no use having a debate with them because nothing will change their mind.

  • Whatever way uncertainty is approached, probability is the only sound way to think about it.

  • The grand assertion is that you must see the world through probability and that probability is the only guide you need.

  • Generally there is Stigler's law of Eponymy that says that a scientific notion is never attributed to the right person; in particular, the law is not due to Stigler.

  • It is dangerous to attach probability zero to anything other than a logical impossibility.

  • In teaching there can be too much emphasis on certainty and a proper appreciation of uncertainty is to be encouraged.

  • I believe that almost all important, useful ideas are simple. Peter Whittle has recently put it nicely in an autobiographical essay. "If a piece of work is heavy and complicated then it is wrong." . . . Some writers feel that to express their ideas in simple terms is degrading. Some use complexity to disguise the paucity of their material. In fact, simplicity is a virtue and when, as here, it is both original and useful, it can represent a real advance in knowledge.

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