Via Monkey Cage, a selection of humorous quotes on Social Science, “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)”:

Thou shalt not commit a Social Science. — W. H. Auden

God gave all the easy problems to the physicists. – James March

In the social sciences, waiting for Newton is like waiting for Godot. — Lee Cronbach and Philip Converse

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

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

If you put all the economists in the country end to end, they’d still point in different directions. — Harry S. Truman

The Economist’s Motto: To err is human, to be paid for it divine. — Victor Fuchs

Those who do not know the past are condemned to repeat History 101. — Anon.

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

If you can understand an article in the APSR then something must have gone wrong in the refereeing process. – A Wuffle

Sociology is the branch of science with the most methods and the least results. – Henri Poincare, circa 1909-10