[Idiom] Like minds think alike

[Silverobama]

My friend Gary mentioned the phrase "Like minds think alike" and I told her that I'd never heard of it. I've only heard of "Great minds think alike".

I wonder if "Like minds think alike" is common.

 

[emsr2d2]

My friend Gary [STRIKE]mentioned[/STRIKE] used the phrase "Like minds think alike" and I told [STRIKE]her[/STRIKE] him that I'd never heard of it. I've only heard of "Great minds think alike".

I wonder if "Like minds think alike" is common.

Note my corrections above. I've never heard the version Gary used.

 

[probus]

Gary's version is a tautology and therefore pointless. It's like saying blue things are blue.

 

[Phaedrus]

Gary's version is a tautology and therefore pointless. It's like saying blue things are blue.

Perhaps the intended meaning of "Like minds think alike," which does seem to exist (I even see T-shirts), is "Like-minded people think alike."

"Like-minded people think alike" means that people who are philosophically aligned have a tendency to think about things in a similar way.

 

[Tdol]

Gary is wrong.

 

[5jj]

"Like-minded people think alike."

That seems to me to be as tautologous as Gary's version.

 

[Tdol]

I don't mind the tautology as a way of talking about group think- it could be a comment on the easy way people reach a consensus, as they do in the Establishment, because they're all from the same backgrounds and experience.