Talk:Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Regulation is the substitution of error for chance.

I cannot find the original source for a quote attributed to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing:

• Regulation is the substitution of error for chance.

• • Cited in correspondence from Fred J. Emery, former director of the Federal Register to the editors of Harvard Magazine (November 2007) [1]

Mr. Emery provides the following context for the quote which had been misattributed to him. Mr. Emery's usage suggests that the original quote would be from the 1970's or earlier:

• “It is true that I frequently used ‘Regulation is the substitution of error for chance’ in speeches in the 1970s. I think I always gave credit to its true author, former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. I believe I so notified Paul Dickson in the 1980s, but once in print…. I guess being given credit for this observation is not the worst thing that ever happened to me, although I usually softened it by preceding it with ‘All too often….’”

• • Harvard Magazine (November 2007) [2]

It is possible the original quote was either "La régulation est la substitution de l’erreur au hasard" or "Les lois aont la substituion de l'erreur au hasard" but I cannot find either formulation in written texts available to me. Jeholt3rd (talk) 16:03, 10 April 2024 (UTC)