bq. Thou shalt not commit a Social Science. — W. H. Auden
Want more? Okay, here are some others, all collected or concocted by the irrepressible A Wuffle. If you like this sort of thing, then stay tuned for the soon-to-be-released Wit and Humor of Political Science (Sigelman, Newton, Meier, and Grofman, eds., which is slated for publication in January):
bq. God gave all the easy problems to the physicists. – James March
bq. In the social sciences, waiting for Newton is like waiting for Godot. — Lee Cronbach and Philip Converse
bq. To avoid the problem of scientific validity, three strategies are commonly followed in the social sciences: (a) eschewing falsifiable statements; (b) denying the possibility of objective truth, and (c) writing in French or German. The combination of these three strategies has been shown to be virtually irresistible, even to strong minds. Statements which on the face of it are unintelligible gibberish can always be blamed on a bad translation. — A Wuffle
bq. An economist is one who observes something that works in practice and wonders if it will work in theory. — As told to Bernard Nelson by Victor Fuchs
bq. If you put all the economists in the country end to end, they’d still point in different directions. — Harry S. Truman
bq. The Economist’s Motto: To err is human, to be paid for it divine. — Victor Fuchs
bq. Those who do not know the past are condemned to repeat History 101. — Anon.
bq. I dropped out of American Studies after the first exam, when I found out that the correct answer to all four questions was “hegemony.” — Emily Polsby
bq. If you can understand an article in the APSR then something must have gone wrong in the refereeing process. – A Wuffle
bq. Sociology is the branch of science with the most methods and the least results. – Henri Poincare, circa 190910