Oliver Goldsmith Quotes

It is precisely because neither individuals nor small groups can be fully self-sufficient that cooperation is necessary to human survival and flourishing.

One man will carry two buckets of water for his own use, Two men will carry one for their joint use; Three men will carry none for anybody's use.

Without social cohesion, the human race wouldn't be here: We're not formidable enough to survive without the tactics, rules and strategies that allow people to work together.

I lose faith in any cooperative, commonwealth; cannot see how, after all, there will be incentives.

The more you participate in our common endeavors, the more successful your work in the factory, mine, wharf or village, in an economic institute or in the arts, in commerce or administration, the sooner we will be where we all want to be.

The cultivation of sensibility on purely personal lines may, in fact, be the very worst training for a world where only the corporate and the cooperative will matter.

We look at the world and analyze the world, and see what we can do that is in line of our mutual interest and also in line with, you know, what the whole world needs, because this is a world where we really have to all work together.

An animal that embarks on forming states without greatly restricting egoism will perish.

Humans are humans because we are able to communicate with each other and to organize to do things together that we can't do individually.

In modern societies, all things, even in the military department of affairs, are decided, not by individual effort, but by the combined operations of numbers;

You can’t do leadership alone.

I learned early on that success is best if it is shared.

We talk about "rugged individualism" and "personal liberty." My dear friends, both of those disappeared from the earth the day the first colony of cave men held a conference around a community fire.

Support each other as is needed to achieve goals for the benefit of the people and the nation's security.

Men and women may form associations for and among themselves and be governed by stipulations that are mutually acceptable.

We cannot, any of us, do all the things of which mankind stand in need; we must have fellow-labourers.

The collective comes before the individual.

At Manchester, everyone plays for himself and does what he wants but it works out in the end.

I think Americans generally are not used to working very hard, in terms of working for the collective. I think in our country we have taken individualism to its farthest reaches, possibly.

When you start out in a team, you have to get the teamwork going and then you get something back.

There are two kinds of people in this world. 'I' people and 'we' people. I've always tried to be a 'we' person.

Ants are good citizens, they place group interests first.

Certainly the emphasis I place in this chapter on coordination of behavior and cooperation to mutual benefit is something that ought to be very congenial to people in the libertarian tradition.

I played on teams with 24 guys pulling the rope one way and one guy pulling the other. I've seen how destructive it can be. I tell them, 'If 13 of you are insanely successful and one fails, we all lose.'

The manager of a team is like a stagecoach, he can't move unless he has the horses.