Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · late 20th century
What does it mean?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. There is no trace of this in Einstein's writings or recorded speech. It circulates in recovery literature from around 1981, and Rita Mae Brown published a similar sentence in 1983. A rival reading says the advice is sound, so the famous name is just packaging. Repeating a failed tactic is a real practical error. Calling it the definition of insanity is a rhetorical flourish, not a clinical definition, and not a physicist's. Famous names get used as stamps.
Did Albert Einstein really say this?
The library’s label is Misattributed. There is no trace of this definition in Einstein's writings or recorded speech. It circulates in recovery literature from around 1981, and Rita Mae Brown published a similar sentence in 1983. Einstein's name was attached later because the line wanted a genius.
Where it comes from
No Einstein source; in print in Narcotics Anonymous literature by 1981, and a close line in Rita Mae Brown's Sudden Death (1983)
Approximate date: late 20th century.
How to use it
Change the tactic if the evidence says it fails, in a project, a relationship, a treatment plan. Attribute the advice to a recovery pamphlet, to Brown, or to your own experience. Do not attribute it to Einstein in order to make a meeting feel serious.
A mindset reading
The clinical word does work the sentence has not earned. It flatters the speaker and diagnoses the other person. That is a further reason to refuse the quotation marks, separate from the missing source.
Understand the philosophy
Einstein is the centre of an industry of fake quotations. A library of critical thinking that did not show one of them would be dodging the clearest modern example. The real 1921 remark about mathematics is the contrast.
- knowledge
- mind
- change
FAQ
What does it mean?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. There is no trace of this in Einstein's writings or recorded speech. It circulates in recovery literature from around 1981, and Rita Mae Brown published a similar sentence in 1983. A rival reading says the advice is sound, so the famous name is just packaging. Repeating a failed tactic is a real practical error. Calling it the definition of insanity is a rhetorical flourish, not a clinical definition, and not a physicist's. Famous names get used as stamps.
Did Albert Einstein really say this?
Misattributed. There is no trace of this definition in Einstein's writings or recorded speech. It circulates in recovery literature from around 1981, and Rita Mae Brown published a similar sentence in 1983. Einstein's name was attached later because the line wanted a genius.
Which work is it in?
No Einstein source; in print in Narcotics Anonymous literature by 1981, and a close line in Rita Mae Brown's Sudden Death (1983) Approximate date: late 20th century.