This is very true.

Reading Tufte carefully, one realizes that (a) he's read more Derrida than he's willing to admit (there are entire unattributed quotations, probably by accident) and (b) great charting is an art form, perilously predicated on someone being both quantitatively educated and visually gifted.

There is no silver bullet but the table, and even then, Simpson's paradox is always ready to bite you.