F.G.

I know of scarcely anything so apt to impress the imagination as the wonderful form of cosmic order expressed by the "law of frequency of error" [the normal distribution]. The law would have been personified by the Greeks and deified, if they had known of it. It reigns with serenity and in complete self effacement amidst the wildest confusion. The huger the mob, and the greater the anarchy, the more perfect is its sway. It is the supreme law of Unreason.

Francis Galton