Quotes from The Wisdom of Crowds

“Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise.”
― James Surowiecki, quote from The Wisdom of Crowds

“No decision-making system is going to guarantee corporate success. The strategic decisions that corporations have to make are of mind-numbing complexity. But we know that the more power you give a single individual in the face of complexity and uncertainty, the more likely it is that bad decisions will get made.”
― James Surowiecki, quote from The Wisdom of Crowds

“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, quote from The Wisdom of Crowds

“Groups are only smart when there is a balance between the information that everyone in the group shares and the information that each of the members of the group holds privately. It's the combination of all those pieces of independent information, some of them right, some of the wrong, that keeps the group wise.”
― James Surowiecki, quote from The Wisdom of Crowds

“It may be, in the end, that a good society is defined more by how people treat strangers than by how they treat those they know.”
― James Surowiecki, quote from The Wisdom of Crowds

“groups that are too much alike find it harder to keep learning, because each member is bringing less and less new information to the table. Homogeneous groups are great at doing what they do well, but they become progressively less able to investigate alternatives.”
― James Surowiecki, quote from The Wisdom of Crowds

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Popular quotes

“Our mathematics is the symbolic counterpart of the universe we perceive, and its power has been continuously enhanced by human exploration.”
― quote from The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number

“As Myron dashed back and forth in the wave of basketball action, a thought sneaked in through the back door of his brain. The thought stayed on the fringes, hiding behind a couch, popping into view every once in a while before ducking back down again. You can do this, the thought taunted. You can play with them. Myron”
― Harlan Coben, quote from Fade Away

“You’ll get to the point where you react differently when you see food you know you shouldn’t eat.”
― Judith S. Beck, quote from The Beck Diet Solution

“But you can't ever live in the place you dream about, the town you long for. ...the moment you become conscious of your desire, and then fulfill it, it evaporates.”
― Haven Kimmel, quote from The Solace of Leaving Early

“Najniebezpieczniejszą, choć całkiem oddzielną sprawą, przed którą chciał mnie przestrzec najbardziej, a która posłała w opary szaleństwa całe kompanie młodych biedaczyn, było czytanie książek. Ten niedobry zwyczaj nasila się ostatnimi czasy, stąd więc niewypowiedziana wdzięczność ojca, że nie wykazałem do tej pory takich tendencji. Szpitale psychiatryczne są przepełnione ludźmi, którzy czytają zbyt dużo. Kiedyś byli - tak jak my - silni fizycznie, otwarci, zadowoleni i zrównoważeni. Potem zaczęli czytać. Najczęściej przez przypadek. Jakieś przeziębienie, wymagające kilku dni leżenia w łóżku. Ładna okładka wzbudzająca ciekawość. I nagle rodzi się zły nawyk. Pierwsza książka prowadzi do następnej. I następnej, i jeszcze jednej, ogniwa w łańcuchu, który wiedzie prosto w dół, w wieczny mrok choroby psychicznej. Po prostu nie można przestać. To gorsze niż narkotyk.”
― Mikael Niemi, quote from Popular Music from Vittula

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.