Life & Wisdom Quote by Rex Stout

Rex Stout’s line lands with the clean snap of a detective’s clue: it’s not anti-data, it’s anti-prestige. “Look up” evokes the dull discipline of verification - sources, methods, the boring labor that makes numbers trustworthy. “Make up” is the punchline, but also the indictment. Stout isn’t claiming that statistics are inherently fraudulent; he’s warning that the aura of mathematics is easily weaponized by anyone with an agenda and a decent poker face.

The craft here is the binary. Two kinds. No gray area. It’s a deliberately oversimplified taxonomy meant to expose a more common oversimplification: when people deploy statistics rhetorically, they often treat them as self-authenticating. A number feels like a fact even when it’s really a story with a calculator. Stout’s wit comes from smuggling a moral choice into what looks like a neutral category. You either did the work, or you performed the work.

Context matters: Stout made his name writing Nero Wolfe mysteries, stories built on the idea that truth emerges from careful scrutiny, not vibes. Read that way, the quote is less a cheap jab at “lies, damned lies” cynicism than a procedural ethic. It’s a reminder that in public life - politics, advertising, even newsroom hot takes - statistics can be a kind of costume. The line’s staying power comes from its invitation to interrogate the seam: where did this number come from, and who benefits if you don’t ask?