Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Quote Investigator finds no substantive evidence that Einstein said it and reports that Alice Calaprice places it under “Misattributed to Einstein” in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, p. 474. Its earliest strong match is Betsy Pickle’s report of an Al-Anon meeting in The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 11 October 1981, p. F17. A November 1981 Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet has a close form. A 1983 occurrence belongs to Jane Fulton, a character in Rita Mae Brown’s Sudden Death, not to Einstein or automatically to Brown as originator. QI documents an Einstein attribution in an Austin American-Statesman report of 19 November 1990. All these historical publications are known here through QI, not independently inspected. Wikiquote was also checked; its older account starts with the November pamphlet and omits the earlier October newspaper match. No complete Einstein corpus was searched: none is held locally. The individual who coined the saying remains unidentified.

1. 11 October 1981Earliest found · credited to Unnamed Al-Anon attendeeAn unnamed Al-Anon attendee uses the saying in a newspaper report; QI identifies this as its earliest strong match.Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.Betsy Pickle, “Al-Anon Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives,” The Knoxville News-Sentinel (11 October 1981), p. F17, column 2. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. November 1981Reworded · credited to Narcotics AnonymousA Narcotics Anonymous approval-form pamphlet uses a close version about repeating mistakes.Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.World Service Conference of Narcotics Anonymous, Basic Text Approval Form, chapter 4, “How It Works,” Step Two (printed November 1981), p. 11. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 1983Spread · credited to Jane Fulton (fictional character)Rita Mae Brown’s novel attributes a version to its fictional sportswriter Jane Fulton; it is later than the recovery-community printings.Rita Mae Brown, Sudden Death (New York: Bantam Books, 1983), chapter 4, p. 68. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 19 November 1990Credited to Albert EinsteinA newspaper report quotes district attorney Ronnie Earle crediting a version to Einstein; QI supplies no supporting Einstein document.Mike Ward, “Prison Puzzle – Threat of cost explosion poses difficult choices,” Austin American-Statesman (19 November 1990), p. A1. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source

A recovery-community saying later attached to Einstein. Quote Investigator’s earliest strong match is a newspaper report of an Al-Anon meeting in October 1981, where an unnamed attendee uses it during a discussion of restoring sanity; a close form appears in Narcotics Anonymous literature the following month.

If an approach repeatedly fails, change it rather than assuming repetition alone will make it succeed.

This is an aphorism, not Einstein’s scientific or clinical definition of mental illness. Rita Mae Brown used a version in a 1983 novel, but the documented 1981 examples predate that novel.

Reason, Change, Wisdom

• To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. (paraphrase) Elbert Hubbard
• We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like. (misattributed) Chuck Palahniuk
• The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. Elbert Hubbard
• Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles. (not found) Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Oscar Wilde

• quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Misattributed

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Attributed to Albert Einstein. No. No authenticated Einstein source is known; close versions are documented in recovery communities in 1981, with no individual author established. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/insanity-is-doing-the-same-thing/ (checked 25 October 2026).

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