Creativity is intelligence having fun.

Quote Investigator cites Scialabba’s Mindplay in Harvard Magazine, March–April 1984, p. 19, as the precursor; Joey Reiman’s Success: The Original Hand Book (1992), p. 10, uses the creativity formulation, and Resource of Creative and Inventive Activities (1994), p. 157, prints the modern sentence as anonymous. Whether Reiman invented the alteration is unresolved. In 2001 Leslie Yerkes credited an imagination variant to Einstein. Barry Popik also identifies a creativity variant credited to Einstein in Jonas Ridderstrale and Mark Wilcox’s Re-energizing the Corporation (2008), p. 118. All these book and periodical citations are secondary here. Popik dates Scialabba to 1983 from a bound-volume Google Books entry; the more precise March–April 1984 issue identification from Quote Investigator’s scan-based research is used instead. This run read both investigations and Wikiquote’s Talk discussion and checked the atlas, which holds no Einstein source texts. Scialabba’s site could not be reached; the exact modern coiner and first-ever Einstein credit remain unconfirmed. There is no substantive evidence for Einstein, who died in 1955. Apocryphal is used for the Einstein attribution because the authorship of the exact modern sentence is not securely settled.

1. 1984Before it · credited to George ScialabbaGeorge Scialabba ends a review of Howard Gardner with a sentence about imagination as playful intelligence; the wording is not yet the modern creativity sentence.Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.George Scialabba, The Browser: Mindplay, Harvard Magazine, vol. 86, no. 4, March–April 1984, p. 19; review starts p. 16. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 1992Before it · credited to Joey ReimanJoey Reiman describes creativity as intelligence having fun; this is a close formulation, without proof that he originated the change.Joey Reiman, Success: The Original Hand Book (Longstreet Press, 1992), chapter 1, Thumbs Up, p. 10. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 1994Earliest found · credited to no oneA quotation list compiled by Jan Casner prints the exact modern sentence as anonymous; this is the earliest exact occurrence located in the cited investigation.Elizabeth Rowland and Leonard Molotsky (compilers), Resource of Creative and Inventive Activities (National Inventive Thinking Association, 1994), From the Mouths of…, quotations compiled by Jan Casner, p. 157; section starts p. 143. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 2001Credited to Albert EinsteinLeslie Yerkes credits the imagination variant to Einstein, adjoining it to his separate statement about imagination and knowledge.Leslie Yerkes, Fun Works: Creating Places where People Love to Work (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001), p. 76. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
5. 2008Credited to Albert EinsteinA business book attributes a creativity variant to Einstein; this is evidence of that wording’s attribution by 2008, not its first-ever attribution.Jonas Ridderstrale and Mark Wilcox, Re-energizing the Corporation: How Leaders Make Change Happen (Jossey-Bass, 2008), p. 118. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source

An encouraging line about creative thinking is circulated as Einstein’s. The documented family instead begins with George Scialabba’s review of Howard Gardner and then changes wording in business and creativity books.

Creative work is pictured as the mind playing freely rather than merely following rules.

The Einstein label conceals both a later documentary history and a change from imagination to creativity. Scialabba’s authenticated precursor should not be mistaken for proof that he coined every later variant.

Reason

• Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. (not found)
• Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. (not found) Seneca the Younger
• Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. (not found)
• Gray is the color of truth. (misattributed) André Gide
• Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly. (not found) Mae West

• quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/02/fun
• barrypopik.com/blog/creativity_is_intelligence_having_fun
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Albert_Einstein

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Attributed to Albert Einstein. No. Not authenticated as Einstein. A 1984 Scialabba sentence is the documented precursor; the modern wording is in print by 1994, with its exact coiner unresolved. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/creativity-is-intelligence-having-fun/ (checked 25 October 2026).

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