#probability

Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities. ↗

— George Boole

#affecting #certainty #change #circumstances #demand

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability. ↗

— Vannevar Bush

#attempt #entirely #far #game #get

He could not believe that any of them might actually hit somebody. If one did, what a nowhere way to go: killed by accident; slain not as an individual but by sheer statistical probability, by the calculated chance of searching fire, even as he himself might be at any moment. Mathematics! Mathematics! Algebra! Geometry! When 1st and 3d Squads came diving and tumbling back over the tiny crest, Bell was content to throw himself prone, press his cheek to the earth, shut his eyes, and lie there. God, oh, God! Why am I here? Why am I here? After a moment's thought, he decided he better change it to: why are we here. That way, no agency of retribution could exact payment from him for being selfish. ↗

— James Jones

#bell #death #fear #geometry #machine-guns

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#cause #deter #fail #just #may

What is being talked about now is the probability of the Sharon government launching an attack against Lebanon to eliminate the resistance of Hezbollah by using the American war against Iraq. But, of course, in this case, we will certainly fight with all our strength. ↗

— Hassan Nasrallah

#against #american #attack #being #case

It would be so weird if we knew just as much as we needed to know to answer all the questions of the universe. Wouldn't that be freaky? Whereas the probability is high that there is a vast reality that we have no way to perceive, that's actually bearing down on us now and influencing everything. ↗

— George Saunders

#answer #bearing #down #everything #freaky

I am in suspense as to the probable or improbability of being called into the Army, a station I would prefer to any other that of being in arms to defend an injured and grossly insulted country. ↗

— John Sevier

#any #arms #army #being #called

Information: the negative reciprocal value of probability. ↗

— Claude Shannon

#negative #probability #reciprocal #value

The fact that we don't keep repeating tests in the same arena is not because the probability of the hypothesis showing its falsity in other arenas goes up after it has passed tests in one arena. ↗

— Robert Nozick

#arena #arenas #because #fact #falsity

The concept of randomness and coincidence will be obsolete when people can finally define a formulation of patterned interaction between all things within the universe. ↗

— Toba Beta

#define #formulation #interaction #life #mystery