James G. March > Quotes

“Intelligence normally entails two interrelated but somewhat different components. The first involves effective adaptation to an environment.”
― James G. March, The Ambiguities of Experience

“The second component of intelligence involves the elegance of interpretations of the experiences of life.”
― James G. March, The Ambiguities of Experience

“The result is that many of the most influential, best-educated, and best-placed citizens have experienced a powerful overlearning with respect to rationality. They are exceptionally good at maintaining consistent pictures of themselves, of relating action to purposes. They are exceptionally poor at a playful attitude toward their own beliefs, toward the logic of consistency, or toward the way they see things as being connected in the world. The dictates of manliness, forcefulness, independence, and intelligence are intolerant of playful urges if they arise…For societies, for organizations, and for individuals, reason and intelligence have had the unnecessary consequence of inhibiting the development of purpose into more complicated forms of consistency.”
― James G. March