[Ads-l] Quip: A committee should consist of three people, one of whom is always sick and the other is always absent

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The joke in the subject line is a member of a family of similar
remarks. Items in this family have been ascribed to Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Hendrik Willem van Loon, E. V. Lucas,
Robert Oliver Jones, Lord Palmerston, and Robert Copeland. Top
quotation researcher Nigel Rees explored this topic in his 1989 book
“Why We Quote?” and in subsequent reference works.

A Quote Investigator article is now available. Full article:
https://quoteinvestigator.medium.com/bdf91cbede27

Abbreviated article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/01/09/committee/

This is the earliest match I found:

[ref] 1878 October 12, The Western Daily Press, Mr Spurgeon On
Christian Work, Quote Page 8, Column 3, Bristol, Avon, England.
(Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
He liked committees for such work. Oh, yes; but the best committee was
a committee of three, and two of them ill in bed. (Laughter.) Let the
third man take the reins, and so drive on.
[End excerpt]

Garson O’Toole

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org