Collective Wisdom Quotes

• Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Ignorance, Majority Rule

  "Notes On Journalism". Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1926.

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• I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Wisdom, War, Believe

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• The anchor of all my dreams is the collective wisdom of mankind as a whole.

  Nelson Mandela

  Dream, Anchors, Mankind

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Conversations With Myself”, p.155, Pan Macmillan

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• We must nurture tolerance, collective wisdom, and democracy.

  Nelson Mandela

  Tolerance, Democracy, Nurture

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• Stories are the collective wisdom of everyone who has ever lived. Your job as a storyteller is not simply to entertain. Nor is it to be noticed for the way you turn a phrase. You have a very important job--one of the most important. Your job is to let people know that everyone shares their feelings--and that these feelings bind us. Your job is a healing art, and like all healers, you have a responsibility. Let people know they are not alone. You must make people understand that we are all the same.

  Brian McDonald

  Art, Jobs, Responsibility

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• Collective wisdom, alas, is no adequate substitute for the intelligence of individuals. Individuals who opposed received opinions have been the source of all progress, both moral and intellectual. They have been unpopular, as was natural.

  Bertrand Russell

  Intellectual, Progress, Adequate

  Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I am not a Christian, and other essays on religion and related subjects”, Touchstone

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• 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.

  James Surowiecki

  Wisdom, Team, Organization

  James Surowiecki (2005). “The Wisdom of Crowds”, p.190, Anchor

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• I think small groups have more collective wisdom than an individual.

  Lewis Schiff

  Thinking, Groups, Individual

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• Until society can be reclaimed by an undivided humanity that will use its collective wisdom, cultural achievements, technological innovations, scientific knowledge, and innate creativity for its own benefit and for that of the natural world, all ecological problems will have their roots in social problems.

  Murray Bookchin

  Creativity, Roots, Achievement

  Janet Biehl, Murray Bookchin (1999). “The Murray Bookchin Reader”, p.53, Black Rose Books Ltd.

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• As a man of the Congress, let me reaffirm my conviction that the collective wisdom of our two great legislative bodies while not infallible will in the end serve the people faithfully and very, very well.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Men, Two, People

  Gerald R. Ford's Address After Taking the Oath of Office as Vice President, www.nytimes.com. December 7, 1973.

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• There are two ways of confronting the country's problems.One is through a management style based on adventurism, instability, play-acting, exaggerations, wrongdoing, being secretive, self-importance, superficiality and ignoring the law. The second way is based on realism, respect, openness, collective wisdom and avoiding extremism.

  Mir-Hossein Mousavi

  Country, Law, Play

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• Nothing is more senseless than to base so many expectations on the state, that is, to assume the existence of collective wisdom and foresight after taking for granted the existence of individual imbecility and improvidence.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Expectations, Assuming, Granted

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• Listen carefully to what country people call mother wit. In those homely sayings are couched the collective wisdom of generations.

  Maya Angelou

  Mother, Country, People

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• The fact that cognitive diversity matters does not mean that if you assemble a group of diverse but thoroughly uninformed people, their collective wisdom will be smarter than an expert's. But if you can assemble a diverse group of people who possess varying degrees of knowledge and insight, you're better off entrusting it with major decisions rather than leaving them in the hands of one or two people, no matter how smart those people are.

  James Surowiecki

  Wisdom, Smart, Mean

  James Surowiecki (2005). “The Wisdom of Crowds”, p.31, Anchor

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• Pope Benedict XVI assumes leadership at a critical time in which the world's collective wisdom and leadership including that of the religious community is most important to face up to challenges of deepening poverty and under-development afflicting many people of the world.

  Thabo Mbeki

  Religious, People, Community

  "Benedict XVI: the Vatican's orthodox insider is new Pope" by Stephen Bates and John Hooper, www.theguardian.com. April 20, 2005.

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• What if Barack Obama established a Presidential Advisory Committee that would meet once every couple of months, bringing together the former presidents for a conference in order to seek their collective wisdom? There is a wealth of experience in former presidents that generally goes untapped.

  Tony Campolo

  Couple, Order, Presidential

  "The Making of a Better President" by Tony Campolo, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 31, 2011.

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• I also believe that at a critical point (more than six people?), that collective wisdom turns into group think.

  Lewis Schiff

  Believe, Thinking, People

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• Ideas that are at odds with the inherited collective wisdom of antiquity are always, on their face suspect.

  Andrew Thomas

  War, Odds, Ideas

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• The secret of literature, which conventional people don't guess, is that writers are forever looking for the surprising revelation - not for reinforcement of collective wisdom.

  Carol Bly

  People, Forever, Secret

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• Libraries have always been humanities' way of preserving its collective wisdom

  Umberto Eco

  Wise, Humanity, Library

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