Quotes from Probability Theory: The Logic of Science

E.T. Jaynes ·  753 pages

Rating: (427 votes)


“A paradox is simply an error out of control; i.e. one that has trapped so many unwary minds that it has gone public, become institutionalized in our literature, and taught as truth.”
― E.T. Jaynes, quote from Probability Theory: The Logic of Science


“if fallacious reasoning always led to absurd conclusions, it would be found out at once and corrected. But once an easy, shortcut mode of reasoning has led to a few correct results, almost everybody accepts it; those who try to warn against it are not listened to.”
― E.T. Jaynes, quote from Probability Theory: The Logic of Science


“something which is absurd or logically contradictory, but which appears at first glance to be the result of sound reasoning.”
― E.T. Jaynes, quote from Probability Theory: The Logic of Science


“Not only in probability theory, but in all mathematics, it is the careless use of infinite sets, and of infinite and infinitesimal quantities, that generates most paradoxes.”
― E.T. Jaynes, quote from Probability Theory: The Logic of Science


“passage to a limit should always be the last operation, not the first.”
― E.T. Jaynes, quote from Probability Theory: The Logic of Science



About the author

E.T. Jaynes
Born place: in Waterloo Iowa, The United States
Born date July 5, 1922
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“You were half a second away from saying we’re the villains in our story!” May”
― James Riley, quote from Half Upon a Time


“It’s rare that a story begins at the beginning. In the grand scheme of things, I really turned up at the beginning of the end of this one. After all, the story of the Rephaim and Scion started almost two hundred years before I was born - and human lives, to Rephaim, are as fleeting as a single heartbeat.
Some revolutions change the world in a day. Others take decades or centuries or more, and others still never come to fruition. Mine began with a moment and a choice. Mine began with the blooming of a flower in a secret city on the border between worlds.
You’ll have to wait and see how it ends.
Welcome back to Scion.”
― Samantha Shannon, quote from The Mime Order


“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.”
― Marie Kondō, quote from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing


“No existe pasión o pensamiento maléfico, adversidad o catástrofe, rebelión o crimen, que no proyecte su sombra en los sueños antes de materializarse en el mundo.”
― Ismail Kadare, quote from The Palace of Dreams


“The Crocodile The sun of the Macusi people was worried. Every day there were fewer fish in their ponds. He put the crocodile in charge of security. The ponds got emptier. The crocodile, security guard and thief, invented a good story about invisible assailants, but the sun didn’t believe it, took a machete, and left the crocodile’s body all crisscrossed with cuts. To calm him down, the crocodile offered his beautiful daughter in marriage. “I’ll be expecting her,” said the sun. As the crocodile had no daughter, he sculpted a woman in the trunk of a wild plum tree. “Here she is,” he said, and plunged into the water, looking out of the corner of his eye, the way he always looks. It was the woodpecker who saved his life. Before the sun arrived, the woodpecker pecked at the wooden girl below the belly. Thus she, who was incomplete, was open for the sun to enter. (112)”
― Eduardo Galeano, quote from Genesis


Interesting books

The Two Princesses of Bamarre
(61.2K)
The Two Princesses o...
by Gail Carson Levine
My Man Jeeves
(28.9K)
My Man Jeeves
by P.G. Wodehouse
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
(35.5K)
Special Topics in Ca...
by Marisha Pessl
Ship of Destiny
(43.5K)
Ship of Destiny
by Robin Hobb
Death in Venice
(26.3K)
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann
Vicious
(35.3K)
Vicious
by V.E. Schwab

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.