Any committee that is the slightest use is composed of people who are too busy to want to sit on it for a second longer than they have to.
—Katharine Whitehorn (1928–2021) English Journalist, Writer, Columnist
Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Committee—a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Comedian, Radio Personality
A committee of three gets things done if two don’t show up.
—Unknown
dump a good idea on a meeting table. It will belong to the meeting.
—Unknown
A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–93) British Historian, Author
A committee is a thing which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
We always carry out by committee anything in which any one of us alone would be too reasonable to persist.
—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925) American Encyclopedia Editor, Essayist
Committee—a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.
—Milton Berle (1908–2002) American Comedian, Actor
A committee is a group of the unwilling chosen form the unfit, to do the unnecessary.
—Unknown
The State, that craving rookery of committees and subcommittees.
—V. S. Pritchett (1900–97) British Biographer, Memoirist, Short Story Writer, Critic
Committee: A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit to do the unnecessary.
—Richard Harkness (1907–77) American Journalist, Radio and TV Personality
A committee is a body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
—Unknown
A committee is an animal with four back legs.
—John le Carre (1931–2020) English Spy Thriller Novelist
A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee.
—Unknown
The heaping together of paintings by Old Masters in museums is a catastrophe; likewise, a collection of a hundred Great Brains makes one big fathead.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
If you want a track team to win the high jump you must find one person who can jump seven feet, not seven people who can jump one foot.
—Unknown
I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
When committees gather, each member is necessarily an actor, uncontrollably acting out the part of himself, reading the lines that identify him, asserting his identity. We are designed, coded, it seems, to place the highest priority on being individuals, and we must do this first, at whatever cost, even if it means disability for the group.
—Lewis Thomas
A technical objection is the first refuge of a scoundrel.
—Heywood Hale Broun (1918–2001) American Journalist, Commentator, Actor
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