Who Said Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results.
Albert Einstein? Al-Anon? Narcotics Anonymous? Max Nordau? George Bernard Shaw? Samuel Beckett? George A. Kelly? Rita Mae Brown? John Larroquette? Jessie Potter? Werner Erhard?
Dear Quote Investigator: It's foolish to repeat ineffective actions. One popular conception presents this betoken harshly:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a unlike result.
These words are unremarkably credited to the acclaimed genius Albert Einstein. What do y'all retrieve?
Quote Investigator: There is no substantive testify that Einstein wrote or spoke the argument above. Information technology is listed within a section called "Misattributed to Einstein" in the comprehensive reference "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton University Press. [1] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited past Alice Calaprice, Department: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Page 474, Princeton University Printing, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on newspaper)
The earliest strong friction match known to QI appeared in October 1981 within a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper article describing a meeting of Al-Anon, an organization designed to assist the families of alcoholics. The journalist described the "Twelve Steps" of Al-Anon which are based on like steps employed in Alcoholics Anonymous. The newspaper began with these 2 steps: [ii] 1981 October eleven, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Al-Anon Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives past Betsy Pickle (Living Today Staff Writer), Quote Page F17, Column 2, Knoxville, Tennessee. (GenealogyBank)
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore u.s.a. to sanity
One of the attendees at the meeting hesitated to accept the accuracy of second stride. Accent added to excerpts by QI:
Not all the women are willing to admit they needed to be "restored to sanity." In fact, one of them adamantly maintains that she had never reached a point of insanity. Simply another remarks, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting unlike results."
The 2nd primeval strong match known to QI appeared in a pamphlet printed by the Narcotics Bearding organization in Nov 1981: [3] 1981, Narcotics Bearding Pamphlet, (Basic Text Approval Course, Unpublished Literary Work), Chapter 4: How It Works, Step Two, Page 11, Printed November 1981, Copyright 1981, W.S.C.-Literature … Continue reading
The price may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a fix than it is for the addict who simply lies to a medico, just ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the aforementioned mistakes and expecting different results.
QI caused a PDF of the document with the quotation higher up on the website amonymifoundation.org back in February 2011. The document stated that is was printed in Nov 1981, and information technology had a 1981 copyright find. The website was subsequently reorganized, merely the document remains available via the Cyberspace Archive Wayback Machine database.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological social club.
The linkage between insanity and repetition has a long history. The controversial book "Degeneration" by Max Nordau was published in High german in 1892 and translated into English by 1895. Nordau examined the works of a variety of artists and savagely attacked those that contained repetition which he believed evinced a mental defect in the creator. For example, he criticized Maurice Maeterlinck'south "La Princesse Maleine": [4] 1895 Copyright, Degeneration by Max Nordau (Max Simon Nordau) (Translated from the Second Edition of the High german Piece of work), Quote Page 238, D. Appleton and Company. (Google Books Full View) link
Has anyone anywhere in the poetry of the ii worlds ever seen such complete idiocy? These 'Ahs' and 'Ohs,' this want of comprehension of the simplest remarks, this repetition four or five times of the same imbecile expressions, gives the truest conceivable clinical picture of incurable cretinism. These parts are precisely those almost extolled by Maeterlinck'south admirers.
When George Bernard Shaw reviewed Nordau's opus he turned the criticism of repetition back upon the author and suggested that Nordau might diagnose himself as mentally unsound: [v] 1895 July 27, Freedom, Volume xi, Number six, A Degenerate'southward View of Nordau by Bernard Shaw, Quote Folio ii, Column 1, Published by Benj. R Tucker, New York. (Reprint in 1970 by Greenwood Reprint … Go along reading
I have read Max Nordau's "Degeneration" at your asking,—two hundred and 60 k mortal words, saying the aforementioned thing over and once more. That, as you lot know, is the way to drive a thing into the listen of the world, though Nordau considers it a symptom of insane "obsession" on the role of writers who do not share his own opinions. His message to the world is that all our characteristically modern works of fine art are symptoms of disease in the artists, and that these diseased artists are themselves symptoms of the nervous exhaustion of the race by overwork.
The 1955 book "The Psychology of Personal Constructs" by George A. Kelly included a definition that corresponded to the saying nether investigation although it employed a dissimilar vocabulary: [half dozen] 1955, The Psychology of Personal Constructs by George A. Kelly, Volume ii: Clinical Diagnosis and Psychotherapy, Quote Page 831, Published past West. W. Norton & Company, New York. (Verified on paper)
From the standpoint of the psychology of personal constructs nosotros may define a disorder every bit whatsoever personal structure which is used repeatedly in spite of consequent invalidation. This is an unusual definition, as psychological thinking unremarkably goes.
In October 1981 an educator and counselor on family relationships delivered a voice communication containing a thematically related aphorism: [7] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Watch, Search For Quality Called Key To Life by Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Column 5, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News Archive)
"If y'all always do what you've ever washed, you always get what y'all've e'er gotten." That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at Friday'southward opening of the seventh annual Adult female to Adult female conference.
More than data well-nigh the quotation above is bachelor here.
In Oct 1981 the saying was spoken by an attendee of an Al-Anon coming together as noted previously:
Insanity is doing the same affair over and over once again and expecting different results.
In Nov 1981 a pamphlet from Narcotics Bearding contained a close match equally noted previously:
Insanity is repeating the aforementioned mistakes and expecting different results.
The 1983 novel "Sudden Expiry" by Rita Mae Brown included an instance credited to Jane Fulton who was a graphic symbol within the book: [8] 1983, Sudden Decease by Rita Mae Dark-brown, Chapter four, Quote Page 68, Published past Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans)
The trouble with Susan was that she made the same mistakes repeatedly. She'd fall in dearest with a woman and consume her. Susan thought that her mere presence was enough. What more than was there to give? When she tired, usually later a year or so, she'd find another woman.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't recollect what Jane Fulton once said. "Insanity is doing the same matter over and once again, merely expecting different results."
A June 1983 book review of "Sudden Death" in "The Clarion-Ledger" of Jackson, Mississippi reprinted the saying: [9] 1983 June nineteen, The Clarion-Ledger, "Sudden Expiry" a complex metaphor by Stephen 50. Silberman, (Book review of "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Brown), Quote Folio 7H, Column 2, … Continue reading
Women's tennis gets a thorough dissecting in this story. Jane Fulton is the critical sports writer who contends "Mod professional sports rewards players for function instead of grapheme. Responsibility is normally defined every bit doing a chore meliorate than anyone else." She looks askance at professional lawn tennis and says "Win and become a god. Lose and be forgotten." Finally subsequently following the lives and careers of the players, and the game itself, she concludes, "Insanity is doing the same affair over and over and over again, simply expecting different results."
Also in 1983 Samuel Beckett, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, offered a counterpoint perspective in his work "Worstward Ho": [ten] 1983, Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett, Quote Page seven, Grove Press Inc., New York. (Verified with scans)
All of old. Nothing else always. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Effort again. Fail again. Fail meliorate.
In Jan 1986 the Emmy-winning actor John Larroquette who was a star in the television comedy serial "Night Court" shared the definition during a newspaper interview: [11] 1986 Jan five, The Sydney Morning time Herald, Television with Jacqueline Lee Lewes: From drugs, beverage to… Night Court: 'Confessions of an Emmy Star, Quote Folio 31, Cavalcade 3, Sydney, New … Continue reading
He pops in a definition of insanity – "It's the repetition of the same action expecting unlike results. Similar jumping out of a xl-storey building, breaking every bone, spending half-dozen months in hospital, going back to the same building, up to the 39th floor, jumping and expecting it to be different. Information technology is NEVER different."
In Apr 1986 an opinion piece by Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr in "The Dallas Morn News" of Texas included the saying: [12] 1986 April 25, The Dallas Morning News, Leadership Beyond Ethnicity Should Be Goal of Dallasites by Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr., Dallas, Texas. (NewsBank Admission Globe News)
I once heard insanity defined every bit a process by which an individual or a system does something over and over again in the aforementioned way while yet expecting different results. To continue to evaluate and accost problems in our community strictly along indigenous, instead of human, considerations is insane if simply for one reason: Information technology will pb to the polarization that is the standard of paranoid societies.
The 1988 book "Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World" included an instance: [thirteen] 1988 Copyright, Raising Cocky-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World: Seven Building Blocks for Developing Capable Young People by H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen, Quote Page 174, Published past … Proceed reading
Flexibility is the ability to curve when nosotros find ourselves in unworkable positions. A universal characteristic of insanity is inflexibly doing the aforementioned thing over and over while hoping for different results. Flexibility in the confront of irresolute circumstances, by contrast, is a authentication of mental health.
By 1990 the saying was beingness attributed to Einstein. For case, the "Austin American-Statesman" of Austin, Texas published the following remark made by Travis County District Chaser Ronnie Earle: [14] 1990 Nov 19, Austin American-Statesman, Section: News, Prison house Puzzle – Threat of toll explosion poses hard choices by Mike Ward, Quote Page A1, Austin, Texas. (NewsBank Access World … Go on reading
Einstein one time said that insanity is doing the aforementioned thing over and over and expecting a dissimilar issue.
In 1991 "The Seattle Times" printed the thoughts of an Indiana guess who ascribed another version of the saying to Einstein: [fifteen] 1991 July 4, The Seattle Times, Section: Editorial, Getting Out of the Freedom Business concern by Don Williamson, Quote Page A8, Seattle, Washington. (NewsBank Admission Earth News)
The jurist from the Hoosier State subscribes to Albert Einstein'due south definition of insanity: "doing the same matter over and over and expecting a unlike result."
In 2000 a columnist working for the Knight Ridder News Service ascribed a version of the saying to the influential lecturer and trainer Werner Erhard although the proper name was misspelled equally "Erhart": [16] 2000 July thirty, The Indianapolis Star, Become a plan to overcome trouble spots by Tim O'Brien (Knight Ridder News Service), Quote Folio J3, Cavalcade i, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Newspapers_com)
Werner Erhart described insanity as 'repeating identical beliefs and expecting a different result.' If we repeatedly have difficulties in an area of life, doesn't information technology make sense that our behaviors cause the problems?
In 2016 the webcomic "xkcd" depicted two characters conversing; the first mentioned the now well-known definition of insanity, and the second replied with a remark that implicitly and cleverly applied the logic of the definition to his companion: [17] Website: xkcd Comic, Comic title: Insanity, Comic writer: Randall Munroe, Engagement on website: March 18, 2016, Website description: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. (Accessed xkcd.com … Continue reading
You've been quoting that cliché for years. Has it convinced anyone to modify their heed still?
In conclusion, based on current evidence the saying originated in one of the twelve-step communities. Anonymity is greatly valued in these communities, and no specific author has been identified past the many researchers who have explored the provenance of this adage. The linkage to Albert Einstein occurred many years after his death and is unsupported.
Prototype Notes: Two arrows pointing at one another from OpenClipart-Vectors at Pixabay. Portrait of Albert Einstein circa 1921 by Ferdinand Schmutzer accessed via Wikimedia Commons. Images have been retouched, cropped and resized.
(Dandy thanks to MJ Redman, Kevin Ashton, Melinda Denson, Linda Sternhill Davis, The Muser, Mededitor, Santanu Vasant, Simon Lancaster, Michael Cochran, David Meadows, J Carson, Guilherme Simões, Ed Darrell, Lee Winkelman, and Fabius Maximus (Ed.) whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special cheers to the volunteer researchers Quora and Wikiquote who mentioned the Narcotics Anonymous commendation. Also, cheers to the valuable inquiry conducted by Barry Popik, Ben Zimmer, and Daniel Gackle. Many thanks to Neb Mullins who located the important October 11, 1981 citation.)
Update History: On July 31, 2019 the October xi, 1981 citation was added to the article.
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
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