Quotations and Literature Forum

[quote="guvner"]Greetings! In the movie "28 days", a phsycologist says something like this to Sandra Bullock - "Insanity is defined as repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result". Please, please tell me who said that. I would love to use it, but would like to give proper credit. Thanks![/quote]

[b]:D i thimk that insanity is know whether or not you can see the real in someone. [/b]

This statement may originate in the field of counselling. The old saw is that when people fail at something they try harder and harder, and harder, but all they get is more of the same, repeating the same behaviour and not getting anywhere...
No Einstein needed.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits - einstein.savagelondon

We have stayed the course since January 2007 when Pelosi started bloating housing starts, stealing credit resources from the private sector, and otherwise causing the crash in the Stock Market. She usurped all power with H.Res.6 in 2007. In 2006, we had record lows in joblessness and a steady increase in GDP. The Democrats "fixed" that with the Stimulus Act. They want to stay the course by stealing more money for a government we cannot afford to pay for spending regulation that stimulates joblessness.

My thought was this forum should avoid politicization, but if you engage in historical revisionism, I will stay THIS course.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983), p. 68.
Note: This same quote, or "The definition of insanity is...," has also been variously attributed to Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and an old Chinese proverb, but this is its first known appearance in print.

Insanity should be defined as doing the same thing over and over again and getting different results.

This quote about insanity is printed in the Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous --NOT Alcoholics Anonymous (referred to commonly as the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)-- published one year PRIOR to the printing of RMB's book. (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are not affiliated organizations, nor are their books affiliated.) The expression, however, has been commonly used in most drug and alcohol recovery programs and self-help movements for multiple decades, which is why it turned up in the Sandra Bullock movie (and, presumably, RMB's book), thereby gaining further notoriety.

As near as I can find, the attribution to Einstein seems to be urban legend.

The saying appeared in Rita Mae Brown's book Sudden Death. ch. 4 (1983)

Credit card?

It is also widely attributed to Einstein by several reputable sites, but so far I have not found one that cite the published source, and I just finished a comprehensive book on the writings of Einstein, Ideas and opinions without having to rely on.

The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over, and then expecting different results."
It is usually attributed to Albert Einstein.

It's really common to all

I used this phrase with my psychotherapist. He looked at me funny and said "no it's not". I'm sure he was thinking in clinical terms. And I supposed it could be one of many behaviors by some as a result of insanity. It probably started as a silly quote to fit a particular situation but then, by repetition, it became "the definition".

Merriam-Webster defines Insanity as:

1: a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia)

2: such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility

3a: extreme folly or unreasonableness
3b: something utterly foolish or unreasonable

I believe that that quote is from Abraham Lincoln.