The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
...the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be.
The ideal reasoner,... would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it.
...a man should keep his little brain-attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.
...it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.
I had... come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.
It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.
...when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, must be the truth...
...while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.
No data yet.... It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.