How should I interpret this quote?

research Benjamin Disraeli

Re: How should I interpret this quote?




It's kind of a joke....but with a serious intent.


Twain is commenting on how people tend to use statistics to bolster their point of view, but often the statistics they use are highly questionable....or perhaps just made up, or have been made to appear to support a position when a better analysis would suggest that they do not.


The use of "lies, damn lies" is setting up the slightly shocking (and therefore funny) use of statistics at the end....normally we do not view statistics as "lies".


So...there are ordinary lies, really big lies, and statistics, which Twain implies are the biggest lies. (Or "whoppers" as we might say!)

As an American I agree with dlowan said, but, there's a subtle meaning that hard to explain.

While Missouri, where Twain grew up is technically the Midwest, there's a lot of Southern-ism going on there.

I have a male friend from Louisianna who got upset when I jokingly called him a fool. The way he grew up, calling someone a fool was one of the worst things you could call someone in polite company.

Southerners, as a rule, like to throw the word damn around, a lot. This same friend has a small son (Mason Lee, how much more Southern can you get?) who's a little over 3. Daddy came home one day and ML immediately informed him that "the dog broke his damn leg" The kid loves the dog, but that damn leg.....

In a heated argument, telling someone "that's a lie" would be bad enough, but saying "now that's a damn lie"....really means business.

A "lie" is an untruth. A "damn lie" is an outrageous untruth-- an out and out mind-boggling attempt at deception.

Thanks guys. I think now I understand.

I was confused because somehow I felt there must be a trait of some kind that its intensity ascends from 'lies' to 'damn lies' to 'statistics'. Maybe dlowan is right, statistics could actually be the worst

Thanks Chai for explaining the subtleties, they are helpful.

where are you from miazhou?

I'm originally from China, but I've been living in California for several years.

Some points:

(1)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pen name Mark Twain, popularized the saying in "Chapters from My Autobiography," published in the North American Review, No. DCXVIII., July 5, 1907. He attributed the phrase to Benjamin Disraeli, (1804-1881, twice Prime Minister of Great Britain), although it is not certain that Disraeli was the author.

(2)

Clemens actually wrote "damned lies", not "damn lies".

In an era of strong religious belief, the word "damned" conveyed a powerful intensification upon a following adjective.

Thanks, contrex.

Alot of times in American speech "Damn" will precede "Lie", "lies" or "lier" when the speaker is adding emphasis or anger when he/she is making an impassioned testament to a lie.

For example;

"Thats a damn lie!" or "She a damn lier!"

as opposed to "thats a lie." or "she's a lier" which does not seem to have the same contempt or conviction of the speaker. The two (damn and lie) are often seen together. If you were familiar with this common usage what Twain is saying it would make perfect sense.

Statistics based on facts and findings can however be used in as contemptible a manner as a lie for ones own dishonest purposes and because of that worse then a "damn lie".