When contemplating the property probability, as with knowledge, it turns out to be very difficult to provide an uncontentious analysis. Because of its many different conceptions and dimensions, the full value of probability is surprisingly hard to capture. To that end, below is a list of quotations to help sketch a definition of the property probability.
“In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.”
– Baruch Spinoza
“Life is a school of probability.”
– Walter Bagehot
“If nature has taught us anything it is that the impossible is probable.”
– Ilyas Kassam
“Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that the mere fact of our existence should keep us all in a state of contented dazzlement.”
– Lewis Thomas
“Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.”
– William Osler
“The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.”
– B. F. Skinner
“Psychology helps to measure the probability that an aim is attainable.”
– Edward Thorndike
“Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities.”
– George Boole
“The scientific imagination always restrains itself within the limits of probability.”
– Thomas Huxley
“Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.”
– George Eliot
See more: Approximations
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