Also attributed (incorrectly) to both Yogi Berra and Mark Twain. The
Twain attribution leads (because he published numerous essays and short
stories in The Galaxy magazine) to one possible (and documentable) source:
"[I]f we found a character in a novel represented as habitually
uttering true predictions of the future, we should cry out at once
against the improbability."
– Charles Astor Bristed (aka Carl Benson), Casual Cogitations,
The Galaxy, 1873; 16:196–201.
Peter Dalgaard wrote:
Martin Maechler wrote:
But then, as professional statisticians, we should consider the
famous
>>> Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future <<
attributed to Physics Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr.
...and quotations are even more difficult!
A number of people are known NOT to be the source of that one, including
Bohr, Robert Storm Petersen, and former minister of culture Steincke (in
his memoirs, he mentions it being used in parliament some time during
1935--1939, but he forgot by whom). One source has "Markus M. Ronner,
and others" (he was born in 1938, though!)
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