The claim, as it circulates · Checked 2026-10-20
Did Einstein say “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over”?
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Usually credited to Albert Einstein
DIDN'TShort answer · Didn't say itNo. There’s no evidence Einstein said it. Princeton’s The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010, p. 474) lists it under “Misattributed.” The earliest known version comes from a 1981 Al-Anon meeting reported in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. It was first credited to Einstein around 1990, 35 years after he died.
The receipt: earliest evidenceNo. 009
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. But another remarks, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
- Work
- Earliest known: The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 11 October 1981, p. F17
- Date
- 1981
- Place
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Origin
- A saying from twelve-step communities (Al-Anon / Narcotics Anonymous), 1981.
- Source
- Quote Investigator: Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over ↗
- Checked
- 2026-10-20
Newspaper excerpt as reproduced with full citation by Quote Investigator (citation found by Bill Mullins).
- A Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet from November 1981 has a version: “Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”
- Earlier versions of the idea: Max Nordau (1895) and the psychologist George A. Kelly (1955).
Cite-safe version
“As they say in twelve-step circles: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”