Daily Inspiration Quote by Herbert Beerbohm Tree

A committee should consist of three men, two of whom are absent: it lands like a stage punchline because it treats “governance” as a farce of overcrowded egos and underwhelming results. Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an actor-manager, a man who lived inside rehearsal rooms and bureaucracy alike, so the joke isn’t abstract cynicism. It’s professional muscle memory: when too many people weigh in, the work gets smothered by compromise, posturing, and the slow-motion chaos of trying to please everyone.

The line’s specific intent is to mock the fetish for process. Committees are supposed to distribute responsibility; Tree flips that into a critique of diluted accountability. If only one person is present, decisions happen. If three are present, the decision becomes a referendum on status. The “two absent” clause also winks at how committees often function anyway: members miss meetings, skim minutes, then reappear later to object. Absence becomes efficiency; presence becomes performance.

There’s subtext about class and gender, too, in the period-casual “three men.” Edwardian institutional life was run by male clubs and boards that prized deliberation as a social ritual. Tree’s jab isn’t anti-democratic so much as anti-theatre of consensus: the meeting as a place where people audition reasonableness while avoiding risk.

As an actor, Tree knew timing is everything. This quip doesn’t argue; it sabotages. It’s a one-liner that turns an entire organizational ideal into a comic image: a committee room so empty it finally gets something done.