Original artwork, not a still
Misattributed to Often credited to Mark Twain or Albert Einstein; earliest documented in Narcotics Anonymous literature (1981)
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Its pull is the neat trap in the logic: the sane move is to change something, and anyone repeating a failed plan gets named in a single sentence. That is why every group that wants people to change, from twelve-step rooms to engineering retros, keeps reaching for it. The fake pedigree is half the fun now: Twain and Einstein both get the credit, and the line is a stock example when people talk about misattributed quotes.
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In context
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Mark Twain never wrote this, and neither did Albert Einstein, though the internet credits it to both. Wikiquote's page on insanity traces the idea in this form to a 1981 text from Narcotics Anonymous, which says insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. Wikipedia's entry on Einstein in popular culture lists the longer "over and over" version among the many viral quotes wrongly pinned on him. The wording on the site is the later polished form that has circulated under famous names.
Sources (3)
- Wikiquote: Insanitysection N, entry 'Insanity is repeating the same mistakes...'Reference checked
- Wikipedia: Albert Einstein in popular cultureparagraph on misattributed quotesReference checked
- Wikiquote: Mark Twaininsanity-related entriesReference checked
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