Carroll D. Wright

1840–1909 · American statistician & first U.S. Commissioner of Labor

Carroll Davidson Wright was an American statistician and the first U.S. Commissioner of Labor, serving from 1885 to 1905. He enlisted as a private in 1862, left the Civil War a colonel, sat in the Massachusetts Senate, and ran the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor before taking charge of the Eleventh Census in 1893. He chaired the commission investigating the 1894 Pullman Strike and later became president of Clark College. His professional creed was that honest statistics are a defence against dishonest argument — which is exactly why this proverb stuck to him.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“Figures Don't Lie, But Liars Do Figure”

Disputed

Not actually Carroll D. Wright

Often misattributed to Carroll D. Wright

Famous lines widely pinned on Carroll D. Wright that we’ve traced to someone else.

“Figures Don't Lie, But Liars Do Figure”

actually Unknown — in print unattributed by 1884

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