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.

It was also my idea that the advisory committees of the Academy should replace the legal committees of the German Reichstag which was gradually fading into the background in the Reich.

Now for this book I had to learn the world of the Senate which is really for all that's written about the Senate an unknowing world and its mores and the way things work with subcommittees and all. I loved learning about that.

Among the weeds choking out growth and good government are the hundreds of boards commissions and advisory committees that have sprouted over the years. They devour time money and energy far beyond any real contribution they make.

If we are to survive we must have ideas vision and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.