Management development providers GNP publish a monthly set of handy 'quotable quotes' for anyone to use in presentations, speeches or training sessions. Arranged into 100 'themes' including vision, change, leadership, teamwork, communication, motivation and innovation, TrainingZONE has arranged to bring you the quotes on a regular basis. Below are the first set, on the theme of 'facts'. Enjoy!

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." John Quincy Adams, US President (1767-1848)

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley, British author (1894-1963)

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts - for support rather than illumination." Andrew Lang, Scottish author (1844-1912)

"We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't, it's easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions." Jessamyn West, US novelist (1903-1984)

"No great marketing decisions have ever been made on quantitative data." John Sculley, US entrepreneur (b. 1939)

"It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, however suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true." Gore Vidal, US author, essayist (b. 1925)

And finally, Murphy says...

"In any collection of data, the figures that are obviously correct beyond all need of checking contain the errors."

All quotations drawn from '1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training' published by GNP Ltd.