Happens Again in the Same Way Twice
Albert Einstein? Al-Anon? Narcotics Anonymous? Max Nordau? George Bernard Shaw? Samuel Beckett? George A. Kelly? Rita Mae Dark-brown? John Larroquette? Jessie Potter? Werner Erhard?
Dear Quote Investigator: It's foolish to echo ineffective actions. One popular formulation presents this indicate harshly:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over over again and expecting a different result.
These words are usually credited to the acclaimed genius Albert Einstein. What do y'all call up?
Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Einstein wrote or spoke the statement above. It is listed within a section called "Misattributed to Einstein" in the comprehensive reference "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton University Press. [ane] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited past Alice Calaprice, Section: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Page 474, Princeton Academy Press, Princeton, New Bailiwick of jersey. (Verified on newspaper)
The earliest strong match known to QI appeared in Oct 1981 within a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper commodity describing a meeting of Al-Anon, an organization designed to help the families of alcoholics. The journalist described the "Twelve Steps" of Al-Anon which are based on similar steps employed in Alcoholics Bearding. The newspaper began with these two steps: [ii] 1981 October xi, The Knoxville News-Spotter Al-Anon Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives by Betsy Pickle (Living Today Staff Author), Quote Folio F17, Column two, Knoxville, Tennessee. (GenealogyBank)
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Pace 2: Came to believe that a Ability greater than ourselves could restore usa to sanity
One of the attendees at the meeting hesitated to have the accuracy of second step. Emphasis added to excerpts past QI:
Not all the women are willing to admit they needed to exist "restored to sanity." In fact, one of them adamantly maintains that she had never reached a point of insanity. Merely another remarks, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The second primeval strong friction match known to QI appeared in a pamphlet printed by the Narcotics Bearding organization in November 1981: [3] 1981, Narcotics Bearding Pamphlet, (Basic Text Approval Course, Unpublished Literary Work), Chapter Four: How It Works, Pace Two, Page xi, Printed November 1981, Copyright 1981, W.S.C.-Literature … Proceed reading
The toll may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a set than it is for the addict who just lies to a doctor, but ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the aforementioned mistakes and expecting different results.
QI acquired a PDF of the document with the quotation above on the website amonymifoundation.org back in February 2011. The certificate stated that is was printed in November 1981, and it had a 1981 copyright notice. The website was later on reorganized, merely the certificate remains available via the Internet Annal Wayback Automobile database.
Beneath are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The linkage betwixt insanity and repetition has a long history. The controversial book "Degeneration" past Max Nordau was published in German in 1892 and translated into English language 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's "La Princesse Maleine": [iv] 1895 Copyright, Degeneration past Max Nordau (Max Simon Nordau) (Translated from the Second Edition of the German Work), Quote Page 238, D. Appleton and Visitor. (Google Books Full View) link
Has anyone anywhere in the poetry of the two worlds e'er seen such consummate 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 movie of incurable cretinism. These parts are precisely those most extolled past Maeterlinck's admirers.
When George Bernard Shaw reviewed Nordau'due south opus he turned the criticism of repetition back upon the author and suggested that Nordau might diagnose himself every bit mentally unsound: [five] 1895 July 27, Liberty, Volume xi, Number six, A Degenerate's View of Nordau by Bernard Shaw, Quote Folio 2, Column 1, Published by Benj. R Tucker, New York. (Reprint in 1970 by Greenwood Reprint … Go on reading
I have read Max Nordau'southward "Degeneration" at your asking,—2 hundred and sixty thousand mortal words, saying the same affair over and over again. That, as you lot know, is the way to drive a thing into the mind of the globe, though Nordau considers it a symptom of insane "obsession" on the office of writers who do not share his own opinions. His message to the globe is that all our characteristically mod works of 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" past George A. Kelly included a definition that corresponded to the saying nether investigation although it employed a unlike vocabulary: [6] 1955, The Psychology of Personal Constructs by George A. Kelly, Volume 2: Clinical Diagnosis and Psychotherapy, Quote Folio 831, Published past W. W. Norton & Company, New York. (Verified on paper)
From the standpoint of the psychology of personal constructs we may define a disorder as any personal construction which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation. This is an unusual definition, as psychological thinking unremarkably goes.
In Oct 1981 an educator and advisor on family relationships delivered a speech containing a thematically related adage: [vii] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Sentinel, Search For Quality Chosen Central To Life past Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Cavalcade v, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News Archive)
"If y'all ever do what yous've e'er washed, y'all ever get what you lot've e'er gotten." That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at Friday's opening of the seventh almanac Adult female to Adult female conference.
More information about the quotation to a higher place is bachelor here.
In October 1981 the saying was spoken by an attendee of an Al-Anon meeting as noted previously:
Insanity is doing the same matter over and over once more and expecting different results.
In November 1981 a pamphlet from Narcotics Anonymous contained a close match every bit noted previously:
Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
The 1983 novel "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Chocolate-brown included an case credited to Jane Fulton who was a character within the book: [8] 1983, Sudden Death by Rita Mae Brown, Chapter 4, Quote Page 68, Published by Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans)
The problem with Susan was that she fabricated the same mistakes repeatedly. She'd fall in dear with a woman and swallow her. Susan thought that her mere presence was enough. What more than was there to requite? When she tired, usually subsequently a year or so, she'd notice another woman.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't think what Jane Fulton in one case said. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."
A June 1983 book review of "Sudden Death" in "The Clarion-Ledger" of Jackson, Mississippi reprinted the saying: [9] 1983 June 19, The Clarion-Ledger, "Sudden Expiry" a complex metaphor by Stephen L. Silberman, (Book review of "Sudden Decease" by Rita Mae Brown), Quote Page 7H, Column 2, … Continue reading
Women's tennis gets a thorough dissecting in this story. Jane Fulton is the critical sports writer who contends "Modern professional person sports rewards players for function instead of character. Responsibleness is normally divers every bit doing a task improve than anyone else." She looks askance at professional tennis and says "Win and become a god. Lose and exist forgotten." Finally later on 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, but expecting different results."
Also in 1983 Samuel Beckett, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, offered a counterpoint perspective in his work "Worstward Ho": [x] 1983, Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett, Quote Page 7, Grove Press Inc., New York. (Verified with scans)
All of old. Cypher else ever. Ever tried. Always failed. No matter. Try over again. Neglect again. Fail better.
In January 1986 the Emmy-winning actor John Larroquette who was a star in the idiot box comedy series "Dark Courtroom" shared the definition during a newspaper interview: [xi] 1986 Jan 5, The Sydney Morning Herald, Boob tube with Jacqueline Lee Lewes: From drugs, potable to… Nighttime Court: 'Confessions of an Emmy Star, Quote Page 31, Cavalcade iii, Sydney, New … Go on reading
He pops in a definition of insanity – "It'due south the repetition of the same activeness expecting different results. Like jumping out of a 40-storey building, breaking every bone, spending 6 months in hospital, going back to the same edifice, upward to the 39th floor, jumping and expecting it to be different. It is NEVER different."
In Apr 1986 an stance piece by Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr in "The Dallas Morning News" of Texas included the saying: [12] 1986 April 25, The Dallas Morn News, Leadership Across Ethnicity Should Be Goal of Dallasites by Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr., Dallas, Texas. (NewsBank Access World News)
I in one case heard insanity divers as a procedure by which an individual or a arrangement does something over and over over again in the same manner while yet expecting different results. To continue to evaluate and address issues in our community strictly along ethnic, instead of human, considerations is insane if merely for one reason: Information technology volition lead 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: [13] 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 by … Continue reading
Flexibility is the ability to curve when nosotros notice ourselves in unworkable positions. A universal characteristic of insanity is inflexibly doing the same thing over and over while hoping for different results. Flexibility in the face of changing circumstances, by contrast, is a hallmark of mental health.
By 1990 the saying was being attributed to Einstein. For example, the "Austin American-Statesman" of Austin, Texas published the post-obit remark fabricated by Travis Canton Commune Attorney Ronnie Earle: [14] 1990 November 19, Austin American-Statesman, Section: News, Prison Puzzle – Threat of cost explosion poses difficult choices past Mike Ward, Quote Page A1, Austin, Texas. (NewsBank Access World … Go along reading
Einstein one time said that insanity is doing the same affair over and over and expecting a unlike result.
In 1991 "The Seattle Times" printed the thoughts of an Indiana estimate who ascribed some other version of the saying to Einstein: [fifteen] 1991 July 4, The Seattle Times, Department: Editorial, Getting Out of the Liberty Business past Don Williamson, Quote Page A8, Seattle, Washington. (NewsBank Admission World News)
The jurist from the Hoosier Land subscribes to Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome."
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 name was misspelled as "Erhart": [16] 2000 July 30, The Indianapolis Star, Become a plan to overcome trouble spots by Tim O'Brien (Knight Ridder News Service), Quote Page J3, Column 1, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Newspapers_com)
Werner Erhart described insanity equally 'repeating identical behavior and expecting a different result.' If we repeatedly take difficulties in an area of life, doesn't it make sense that our behaviors crusade the issues?
In 2016 the webcomic "xkcd" depicted two characters conversing; the first mentioned the at present 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 author: Randall Munroe, Date on website: March 18, 2016, Website description: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and linguistic communication. (Accessed xkcd.com … Continue reading
You've been quoting that cliché for years. Has it convinced anyone to alter their heed yet?
In determination, based on electric current show the saying originated in ane of the twelve-stride communities. Anonymity is greatly valued in these communities, and no specific author has been identified by the many researchers who have explored the provenance of this aphorism. The linkage to Albert Einstein occurred many years after his death and is unsupported.
Image 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.
(Groovy 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 thanks to the volunteer researchers Quora and Wikiquote who mentioned the Narcotics Anonymous commendation. Also, thanks to the valuable enquiry conducted by Barry Popik, Ben Zimmer, and Daniel Gackle. Many thanks to Nib Mullins who located the important October 11, 1981 citation.)
Update History: On July 31, 2019 the October 11, 1981 citation was added to the article.
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
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