1. Facts, when combined with ideas, constitute the greatest force in the world. They are greater than armaments, greater than finance, greater than science, business, and law because they are the common denominator of them all.
Carl William Ackerman (1890-1970) U.S. editor and writer. Address (September 26, 1931)

2. ACCURACY, n. A certain uninteresting quality carefully excluded from human statements.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) U.S. journalist and writer. The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

3. The attitude of disrespect that many executives have today for accurate reporting is a business disgrace. And auditors…have done little on the positive side. Though auditors should regard the investing public as their client, they tend to know instead to the managers who choose them and dole out their pay.
Warren Buffett ()b.1930 U.S. entrepreneur and financier. Chairman’s Letter of Shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway 1998 Annual Report (March 1, 1999)

4. It is the nature of greatness not to be exact.
Edmond Burke (1720-97) British philosopher and politician. Speech on American taxation (1774)

5. I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) U.S. director. Kodak advertisement. Quoted in variety (July 23,1980)

6. For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot b fooled.
Richard Feyman (1918-88) U.S. physicist. Speech (1986)

7. Measure what is measurable and make measureable what is not.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian mathematician and scientist. Quoted in Armchair Science Reader (I.Gordon and S. Sortin, eds.; 1959)

8. Nothing is more central to an organization’s effectiveness that its ability to transmit accurate, relevant, understandable information among its members.
Saul W. Gellerman (b.1929) U.S. psychologist and writer. The management of Human Resouces (1976)

9. Accuracy is not an essential goal of reading.
Ken Goodman (b.1927) U.S. linguistics educator. Daily Report Card (November 18, 1994)

10. Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94) U.S. surgeon, teacher, and writer. The Autocrat of the Break-fast-table (1858)

11. In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.
Samuel Johnson (1709-84) British poet, lexicographer, essayist, and critic. “The Bravery of the English Common Soldier,” The British Magazine (1760)

12. A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
H.H. Munro (Saki) (1870-1916) British short-story writer. “Clovis on the Alleged Romance of Business,” The Square Egg (1924)

13. Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.
Adlai E.Stevenson (1900-65) U.S. statesman and author. Quoted in The Stevenson Wit (Bill Adler; 1966)

14. The first Duty of a newspaper is to be Accurate. If it is Accurate, it follows that it is Fair.
Herbert Bayard Swope (1882-1958) U.S. newspaper editor. Letter, New York Herald Tribune (March 16, 1958)

15. The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter-it’s the difference between the lightening bug and the lightening.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) U.S. writer. Letter to George Bainton (October 15, 1888)