Jonathan Schell Quotes

The counsel of many wise men is better than the counsel of one man alone.

In science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of human activity, there may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, but it is only in one or two of them.

... this idea that all wisdom is in the President, in me, that's baloney.... I don't believe this government was set up to be operated by anyone acting alone; no one has a monopoly on the truth and on the facts that are affecting this country.

You can't run a government from one single person. What instead matters is that leadership be about gathering around extraordinary individuals and getting the best out of them.

We are moving towards a new form of collective intelligence.

The views of several individuals are assuredly preferable to one man, even as the power of a number of men is of course greater than the power of one man.

The best ideas are common property.

In every decision that we've ever made that's important, the more input, the more people we've heard from, the better the result. And so that will never change in the business model of NASCAR, because the ideas come from all over the place, and that's the strength that we have.

If small groups are included in the decision-making process, then they should be allowed to make decisions. If an organization sets up teams and then uses them for purely advisory purposes, it loses the true advantage that a team has: namely, collective wisdom.

There is no more great men; there is only great committees.

I think that ego-driven leaders will be a thing of the past because the masses are tired.

Our best thoughts come from others.

I think there should be collaboration, but under my thumb.

We always carry out by committee anything in which any one of us alone would be too reasonable to persist.

A team effort is a lot of people doing what I say.

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right.

So you [Romans] when you have got together in a body, let yourselves be guided by those whom singly you would never think of being advised by.

was not, like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.

Wisdom is not the province of only one party.

… leadership is not a one man show.

We assemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected wisdom; but we necessarily have, at the same time, the inconvenience of their collected passions, prejudices and private interests.

Two heads are better than none.

The world needs new leadership, but the new leadership is about working together.

Solitary decisions, no matter how well-founded they may appear to individuals, must belong to the past - along with national, unilateralist action.