Quotes About Consensus

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when 10 percent of the people in a group believe in an idea, the majority of the people will adopt their belief.

Christianity is a religion which requires the bending of human will--through faith and free choice--to God's will. Yet, as practiced in our day and age, Christianity is a religion of consensus and popular opinion. Instead of molding our lifestyle to our faith, today we mold our faith to our lifestyle.

They didn't use discussion as a sham process to let people "have their say" so that they could "buy in" to a predetermined decision. The process was more like a heated scientific debate, with people engaged in a search for the best answers.

Consensus decisions are often at odds with intelligent decisions.

No one wants advice - only corroboration.

You can't write a story together if you're not on the same page

There are times when you have to change your tune to keep harmony.

It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion

That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false.

Consensus demands communication.

What we call reality is an agreement that people have arrived at to make their lives more livable.

Consensus is not always good; disagreement not always bad. If you do happen to agree, don't take that agreement—in itself—as proof that you are right. Never stop doubting.

Call it what you will. One of you will stay—or all will stay. The tax will be paid." And the rocs dropped lower yet. "Poll your number to determine the one.

If you want to have everybody agreeing with you, join a club or program or church that agrees with you.

The challenge of the Republican Party is, if we're going to start winning national elections, we've got to get along as all kinds of Republicans.

I have thought for years environmental issues need to be depoliticized.

Groupthink can then be formed with respect to this or that information

In healthy systems, dialogue is encouraged to inform the best possible decision.

once all voices have been heard and a decision is made by those with the authority to make it, if no core values are being violated, supporting that decision is the correct mode.

It was widely believed that Kennedy's breakthrough to the pinnacle of national power had marked a watershed in Irish-American history, a continental divide on whose broad, grassy forward slope the new breed of assimilated Irishman would henceforth accept the standards and mores of the American consensus.

In our existing political conditions, when everybody agrees about something, it is generally untrue.

Several candidates for the Republican nomination for president in 2012 had previously accepted the climate science consensus, and in some cases actively worked toward climate change solutions (e.g., Huntsman, Pawlenty, Gingrich, and Romney). After becoming presidential candidates, they retreated from their previous positions in every case.

So much of our public policy seems to follow a mantra of "Go with your gut." It doesn't matter what the details are, as long as you are winning, and a perverse calculus has gripped Washington wherein reckless sloganeering and obstruction has replaced governing by consultation, debate, and consensus.

An economists' consensus is perhaps more a rarity than a regularity. But when it happens, we need to pause and take stock.