Ronald Fisher (1890 – 1962)
Evolutionary biologist, geneticist and statistician.
There is, then, in this analysis of variance no indication of any other than innate and heritable factors at work. (Coining of the phrase ‘analysis of variance’.)
The million, million, million ... to one chance happens once in a million, million, million ... times no matter how surprised we may be that it results in us.
After all, it is a common weakness of young authors to put too much into their papers.
[We are now] in a position to judge of the validity of the objection which has been made, that the principle of Natural Selection depends on a succession of favourable chances. The objection is more in the nature of an innuendo than of a criticism, for it depends for its force upon the ambiguity of the word chance, in its popular uses. The income derived from a Casino by its proprietor may, in one sense, be said to depend upon a succession of favourable chances, although the phrase contains a suggestion of improbability more appropriate to the hopes of the patrons of his establishment. It is easy without any very profound logical analysis to perceive the difference between a succession of favourable deviations from the laws of chance, and on the other hand, the continuous and cumulative action of these laws. It is on the latter that the principle of Natural Selection relies.
... the best causes tend to attract to their support the worst arguments, which seems to be equally true in the intellectual and in the moral sense.