the mob has many heads, but no brains

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

A crowd can have many ideas, but lack wisdom or sense.

Literally: a crowd has multiple heads, but no brains

Examples

The protesters were violent and destructive, proving that the mob has many heads, but no brains.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “the mob has many heads, but no brains” mean?

A crowd can have many ideas, but lack wisdom or sense. Literally: a crowd has multiple heads, but no brains

Is “the mob has many heads, but no brains” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.