三人寄れば文殊の知恵 sannin yoreba monju no chie If three people gather, the wisdom of Monju

Monju is Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom; alone we are ordinary, and three of us taking counsel reach what the monasteries prayed to. The line is in a proverb book of 1656 and was what people always say by 1662; its second half is a Buddhist superlative two centuries older, paired in Noh with the Buddha's dullest disciple.

Two heads are better than one is the smaller English cousin.

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