One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

– Mark Twain

(Cited by my beloved uncle Larry during a conversation about an article which attributed a greater death rate on the Titanic among Brits than Americans to the former’s politeness & habit of queuing rather than just barging onto the lifeboats, but which seemed to bypass entirely the presence of more Americans in the upper travel classes, who survived in wildly disproportionate numbers compared to those in 3rd Class & steerage).