Claim:
Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Rating:
For many years, online users shared an alleged quote from physicist Albert Einstein, claiming he once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
For example, users reposted the quote on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), LinkedIn (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived).
The quote-collecting website AZquotes published a page attributing the quote to Einstein and crediting editor Alice Calaprice’s 2010 book “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein,” published by Princeton University Press. The page also presented a meme with the quote next to a photo of Einstein’s face.
Snopes added a red “X” to note the quote’s misattribution. (Image courtesy of AZquotes.com)
Several TikTok videos also showed Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, telling a group of people, “Einstein says the definition of insanity is doing the same thing expecting a different result.”
In short, no evidence shows Einstein, who died in 1955, ever said that insanity — or the definition of insanity — “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Searches of Google Books‘ massive literary archive and Newspapers.com’s enormous newspaper archives located the earliest-available record of the exact quote in 1981, as well as the first mention of the quote appearing with Einstein’s name in 1990.
AZquotes’ credit to editor Calaprice’s book “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” failed to note the quote appeared on page 474 (archived) under a section labeled “Misattributed to Einstein.”
Snopes contacted Ye’s representative Milo Yiannopoulos and AZquotes to ask about their mentions of the quote, including the sources they consulted or processes they utilized for research, and will update this article if we receive further information.
Researching the history of the quote
Throughout previous centuries, an unknown number of people possibly penned messages expressing the same sort of thought — albeit with different words — about the “insanity” of repeatedly performing the same action and expecting differing outcomes. In our investigation, we primarily researched the exact words displayed or spoken in the aforementioned online posts.
Writer Garson O’Toole (a pseudonym) of the credible Quote Investigator website noted in his updated 2017 article that the earliest record of the quote’s exact words appeared in a 1981 Tennessee newspaper article. Knoxville News Sentinel staff writer Betsy Pickle attributed the quote to an unnamed Al-Anon member attending a meeting. (Al-Anon, an organization offering “help and hope for families and friends of alcoholics,” is a different organization than Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).)
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-knoxville-news-sentinel/184396448/
Article from Oct 11, 1981 The Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tennessee)
In 1983, New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown published the same quote in her novel titled “Sudden Death.” We emailed Bantam Books, Brown’s publisher, to reach Brown and ask if she remembered writing the quote, as well as if she could share any information about its origins. We will update this story if we receive any fresh details.
The official and verified Albert Einstein Facebook page (@albert.einstein.fans) — managed by brand licensing and legacy management firm CMG Worldwide — attributed the quote to Brown in a 2014 post (archived), with its creator accurately writing, “THIS IS NOT AN EINSTEIN QUOTE. ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'” The post did not mention the 1981 newspaper article published prior to Brown’s book.
The oldest-located record of the quote also featuring Einstein’s name appeared in 1990, in Texas’ Austin American-Statesman newspaper. At the time, staff writer Mike Ward credited Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who died in 2020, with saying, “Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman/184397315/
Article from Nov 19, 1990 Austin American-Statesman (Austin, Texas)
In other research, we noted a 1924 newspaper column written by Betty Brainerd in which she compared the lives of canaries and goldfish with that of housewives. Near the end of the article, she mentions Einstein’s theory of relativity alongside a comparison of how a goldfish swims round and round in the same bowl for its entire existence, “doing the same thing over and over again, day in and day out, from the beginning of its small, uneventful life to the end.” Brainerd then argues housewives have more freedom than that of a goldfish and that the alleged “drudgery” of being a housewife isn’t quite what it seems. She did not mention “insanity.”
For further reading, we previously investigated another claim Einstein warned the time would come when the very rich so controlled the means of communication that it would be almost impossible for ordinary people to make informed decisions.
Sources
“A.A. Guidelines on Relationship Between A.A. and Al-Anon | Alcoholics Anonymous.” Alcoholics Anonymous, https://www.aa.org/aa-guidelines-relationship-between-aa-and-al-anon.
Al-Anon Family Groups. https://al-anon.org/.
“Albert Einstein | Biography, Education, Discoveries, & Facts.” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Einstein.
Brainerd, Betty. “We Women: Relativity, Goldfish and Drudgery.” The Flint Daily Journal, 4 Mar. 1924, p. 4, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-flint-journal/184492298/.
Brown, Rita Mae. Sudden Death. Random House Publishing Group, 1984. Google Books.
Chokshi, Niraj. “That Wasn’t Mark Twain: How a Misquotation Is Born.” The New York Times, 26 Apr. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/books/famous-misquotations.html.
Einstein, Albert. The Ultimate Quotable Einstein. Edited by Alice Calaprice, Princeton University Press, 2010. Google Books.
Google Books. https://books.google.com/.
Moreno-Lozano, Luz. “BREAKING: Former Travis County DA Ronnie Earle Has Died.” Austin American-Statesman, 5 Apr. 2020, https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2020/04/05/breaking-former-travis-county-da-ronnie-earle-has-died/1402768007/.
Pickle, Betsy. “Al-Anon Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives.” Knoxville News Sentinel via Newspapers.com, 11 Oct. 1981, p. F-17, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-knoxville-news-sentinel/184396387/.
“Quote Origin: Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results.” Quote Investigator, 23 Mar. 2017, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/.
Rita Mae Brown. https://ritamaebrownbooks.com/.
“The Past: Read All about It.” Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/.
Ward, Mike. “Prison Puzzle: Threat of Cost Explosion Poses Difficult Choices.” Austin American-Statesman, 19 Nov. 1990, p. 8, https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman/184397271/.
