We have all done it, haven’t we? Each and every one of us has, at some point, appropriated (or misappropriated) a quotation from a great thinker or writer to lend a spurious profundity to our own footling little thoughts.
While it may be well-nigh irresistible to wrap ourselves in the borrowed robes of literary or scientific genius, the temptation is fraught with dangers. To spare both our own blushes and those of our unsuspecting audience, it’s a good idea to check whether the Great Person actually said what they are reputed to have said.
For one reason and another, the life, career and reputation of Albert Einstein makes him an especially tempting target for spurious attributions.
This is my eclectic list of five things that Einstein did NOT say, and yet seem to be quoted and requoted again and again, especially in an educational context.
It is a melancholy truth that these particular memes will most likely be circulating on the internet until the last router rusts away to nothingness. However, on the principle that it better to light a candle than complain about the dark, I present this list (although, given their preternatural persistence, a flamethrower might be more appropriate).
Watch out, any one of them may well be coming to a CPD near you sometime soon…
Nein-stein No. 1
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
This, according to Quote Investigator [QI 1], was first attributed to Einstein as recently as 2004. The original allegory about animals attending a school and being judged against inflexible criteria, can be traced back to physicist Amos E. Dolbear who published it under a pseudonym in 1898.
Nein-stein No. 2
Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.
Philosophy this gem certainly isn’t. Sadly, it bears no relation to any recognisable form of Physics either. (“Pass the bag labeled ‘New Age Quantum Claptrap’ please, Alice.”)
The original form of this quotation was penned by special effects artist Darryl Anka in 1998 — forty years after Einstein had shuffled off this mortal coil (or, at least, had become significantly less ordered).
Incidentally, Anka never attempted to attribute this thought to Einstein. In fact, he claimed that it had been obtained via “trans-dimensional channelling” from an extraterrestrial entity named “Bashar”. [QI 2]
Nein-stein No. 3
Two things inspire me to awe: the starry heavens and the moral universe within.
A beautiful quote, but Einstein? Naaaah. From Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason (1788), actually. Highbrow enough for ya? [Ref 1]
Nein-stein No. 4
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Not Einstein. Not Benjamin Franklin. Not Rita Mae Brown either. The earliest instance tracked down by Wikiquote was from a Narcotics Anonymous publication from 1981.
Nein-stein No. 5
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. Actually, I’m not sure about the universe.
Einstein may or may not have said this, but the only evidence we have is from the works of therapist Frederick S. Perls, who credited the quote to a “great astronomer” in a book published in 1947. In later works, Perls specifically named Einstein as the originator of the quote which was said during a personal meeting with Perls. However, Perls did present different versions of the statement over the years. [QI 3]
e=mc2andallthat 
Ha! Thank you. That definition of insanity has bothered me for a long time.
I have complained about it more than once, with different results.
You and God, always playing with those dice…
Reblogged this on The Echo Chamber.
I don’t see a way to message you in general so doing it here since this is the post my academic professor son fired back at me when I sent him yet another attempt to explain my metaphysical physics to him. I give up! Is there no comfort in Quantum Physics? I’ve been grasping at straws to explain the unexplainable and will jump on any Quantum connection to find parallels. Could you please recommend a course of study (I only got as far as Physics 101 and Advanced Algebra in high school) which will provide independent study and eventually get me up to speed? Where do I begin?
John Polkinghorne ‘A very short introduction to quantum theory’ would be a very good jumping off point, I think.
#4 actually comes from Alcoholics Anonymous publications . . . prior to N.A. borrowing that and everything else from AA.
“The Universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent” – The Great Carl Sagan
“New age quantum claptrap”? Apparently, you’ve been out of the loop about advances in science for what – the past hundred-and-some-odd-years?? Quantum Mechanics is a fundamental theory.
The fact many new-agers (as you call them) subscribe to aspects of it is because many of them are highly intelligent individuals seeking out “truth”, asking questions and looking for answers. Which, by the way, IS what science itself is all about. If you have any doubt of that, then you are sadly mistaken about what science is, and what it is not.
Anyway, otherwise good article. I was pretty codfish Einstein had not said the quote I’d just seen, and thought I’d look into it. Thanks.
Thanks EM! Fact checking was something that had not occurred to me when receiving quotes from a Buddhist Nun. I zapped her entire Einstein post to my extremely academic professor son, who promptly zapped this blog post back to me. How do we separate profound feelings from “new age claptrap”? I know the sages advise strictly against trying to understand or explain it, but is that just a loop back to them? I would dearly love to embark upon a course of study that would bring me up to speed on the latest developments in Quantum Physics from my very scant introduction of high school Physics 101 back in 1963. As you can see, Death (my own) is a singular preoccupation. Hoping Quantum eases some of my anxieties.
I don’t think we’ve advanced much beyond Hamlet’s mordant observation about ‘the undiscovered country / From whose bourne no traveller returns’. Sadly, I don’t think QM will be of much comfort or help in that regard. Strangely, I find Aaron Freeman’s take on things to be the most comforting: https://physicsteacher.blog/2014/02/14/the-physicists-eulogy/
For the record, I do accept QM. The ‘claptrap’ refers to some individuals attempting to use terminology from QM to support metaphysical speculations, what is sometimes called ‘quantum woo’.
Oh, also – “codfish”? Yeah. Typo, but I kind of like it, so… enjoy. 😉
I don’t think the author of this post missed or doubts the findings of quantum mechanics. But this sentence is not aligning with those. It is just s typical example of eso people misusing fancy words from physics and applying findings from quantum theory to other fields where they don’t apply. Many of these effects are only relevant at very small scales. I cannot just take a low of small particles and say hey then the same applies to my thoughts, or to a whole society