No speech, letter or book of Patton’s is known to contain this line. Quote Investigator ↗ found the earliest close match in an anonymous 1905 filler item: “When everybody thinks alike, nobody will think at all.” QI ties the Patton credit to a 1979 memoir by Porter B. Williamson and calls the connection “weak.” In QI’s chronology, the “somebody isn’t thinking” wording first appears in a 1990 quotation compilation.
“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking” This anonymous saying is often misattributed to George S. Patton. Its earliest close match is an unsigned 1905 filler item: “When everybody thinks alike, nobody will think at all.” (Quote Investigator)
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to George S. Patton. Use the credit shown above instead.
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? We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.
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Provenance
Where the Patton link actually comes from
Earliest close match
The Westminster (Philadelphia), 27 May 1905: an anonymous filler item
Patton link
Porter B. Williamson, I Remember General Patton’s Principles (1979)
Popular wording
Great Quotes From Great Leaders (1990), credited to Patton
QI verdict
“The connection to George Patton is weak.”
It was not necessary for staff officers to agree with Gen. Patton. He followed Ben Franklin’s idea of no one was thinking if everyone was thinking alike.
Williamson, 1979
From Porter B. Williamson’s I Remember General Patton’s Principles (1979), as transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗. Williamson, writing from memory, describes it as a Franklin idea that Patton followed. He does not quote Patton saying it, and his wording (“no one is thinking”) is not the popular one.
1905: The earliest close match Quote Investigator found ↗ is an unsigned filler in The Westminster: “When everybody thinks alike, nobody will think at all.” QI notes 19th-century precursors as well.
1915: Walter Lippmann writes “Where all think alike, no one thinks very much” in The Stakes of Diplomacy ↗. It is a real early variant, but it is not the popular wording.
1919 and 1922: Stanford professor Edward Krehbiel uses the saying in two speeches. The second time he hedges it with “as has been said” (Barry Popik ↗).
1979 onward: Williamson’s memoir ties the idea to Patton. A 1990 compilation prints “If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn’t thinking” under his name. Wikiquote now lists the line only among unsourced Patton quotes ↗.
The exact popular wording has no identifiable author or originating work. It is a late rephrasing of an anonymous saying that appeared in print by 1905, so quotle.info asserts no copyright status for it. The 1979 Williamson memoir and the 1990 compilation that carry Patton-credited versions are themselves modern works and are not public domain.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Who else gets the credit
This saying has drifted through dozens of wordings and many famous names. Quote Investigator ↗ records these attributions:
✕
Most commonGeorge S. Patton Weak link
The credit traces to Porter B. Williamson’s 1979 memoir. According to QI ↗, Williamson was relying on memories of events decades earlier and called the line a principle Patton followed, not something Patton said. In How Google Works (2014), Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg used the popular wording and added in a footnote that they could find no direct proof Patton said it.
✕
Via the same memoirBenjamin Franklin No evidence
Williamson wrote that Patton “followed Ben Franklin’s idea,” and a 1995 Utah column later credited Franklin outright. QI ↗ cites no Franklin source for the saying.
✓
Real early variantWalter Lippmann Different wording
Lippmann did write “Where all think alike, no one thinks very much” in The Stakes of Diplomacy (1915) ↗. Later rephrasings were credited to him as well, but the anonymous 1905 filler is older.
✕
Speech useEdward Krehbiel Disclaimed
The Stanford professor closed a 1919 speech with “When everybody thinks alike nobody thinks at all.” In 1922 he introduced it with “as has been said” (Barry Popik ↗).
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Stray creditsJohn F. Kennedy & Sue Myrick
A 1964 Dallas newspaper credited Kennedy with “If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking at all.” In 1988 Charlotte Mayor Sue Myrick was quoted saying “If everybody’s thinking alike we’re not thinking” (QI ↗).
✓The saying is anonymous. Its earliest close match is a 1905 filler item, and the Patton version is a later rephrasing that, in QI’s words, has only a “weak” connection to him (Quote Investigator ↗).
Context
Why Patton got it
Williamson served with Patton in World War II. His 1979 book I Remember General Patton’s Principles listed “If everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking” among Patton’s decision-making principles on its back cover. The book called the idea Franklin’s, but it put a famous general’s name next to an old saying. By 1990 a compilation printed the now-familiar “somebody isn’t thinking” form under Patton’s name (Quote Investigator ↗).
The attribution spread from there. When Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg quoted the line in How Google Works (2014), they admitted in a footnote that they could find no proof of it in Patton’s memoir War As I Knew It or in his famous speech to the Third Army.
“But the Internet says he did, so it must be true (that’s a joke).” — Schmidt & Rosenberg, How Google Works, footnote
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
George Smith Patton Jr. was a U.S. Army general who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean and then the Third Army in France and Germany after the Normandy invasion. His blunt, profane style makes him a magnet for tough-sounding management maxims. This one appears in none of his known writings. It reached him through a subordinate’s 1979 memoir, which framed it as Ben Franklin’s idea that Patton followed.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented
Earliest close match: “When everybody thinks alike, nobody will think at all,” The Westminster (Philadelphia), vol. 30, no. 21, 27 May 1905, p. 6 (anonymous filler item), as documented in Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: When Everybody Thinks Alike, Nobody Will Think At All,” 5 November 2022, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/11/05/think-alike/.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/if-everyone-is-thinking-alike-then-somebody-isnt-thinking/