Favourite Quotes on Evaluation and Measurement

March 17, 2006

In presentations on evaluation and measurement, I find the use of quotes from experts or well-known personalities assists in clarifying the importance of the field for the listeners. Here are some of my favourite quotes:

“True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information” 
Winston Churchill

“Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation”
Vannevar Bush

“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them”  
George Bernard Shaw 

And a favorite from Monitoring and Evaluation News:

Friend to Groucho Marx: “Life is difficult!” 

Marx to Friend: “Compared to what?”

 

 

Entry Filed under: General. .

5 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Sandeep Jain  |  March 17, 2006 at 5:04 pm

    Good Selections

  • 2. Glenn  |  March 17, 2006 at 8:12 pm

    Thanks Sandeep, any extra quotes are most welcome - i’m always on the lookout.
    Glenn

  • 3. Marla Nayer  |  January 5, 2007 at 1:04 am

    What gets measured gets done
    Tom Peters

    Ambiguous questions lead inevitability to ambiguous results, or, as computer scientists like to state, “garbage in, garbage out.”
    Robert Matz, MD (1977)

  • 4. More favourite quotes on &hellip  |  December 23, 2007 at 8:58 pm

    [...] add to my previous favourite quotes on evaluation and measurement, I have collected the following quotes - [...]

  • 5. Tonsils, run over dogs an&hellip  |  April 28, 2008 at 8:05 pm

    [...] In the same way, you often hear people saying “our results are terrible” - or “we are doing too much of XY”. But my first reaction is “How do you judge that - what are you comparing it to?” - often no real inquiry or comparative data are used (which reminds me of another quote from Groucho Marx). [...]

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