I’ve been trying to track down the origin of the quote that purports to define insanity as, Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. So far, I’ve seen it attributed to Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein and even as an ancient chinese proverb. Do any of you know the actual origin of this statement?
Russell, who is embarrassed by his weak google-fu.
Bartleby doesn’t seem to have it at all, and this site attributes it to both Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. 
Hard to imagine getting a straight answer.
Keep looking. Maybe you’ll get different results.
I should have known that was coming.
What search terms are you using? I can’t get any hits for anyone other than Einstein for the quote.
I’m using **“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again” (33,800 hits)
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again” Einstein** (28,700 hits)
and
**
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again” Franklin** (368 hits, but Franlkin’s name is not with the quote, but elsewhere on the page.)
Googlefight goes to Einstein!
On the site I cited:
Here, Einstein:
http://en.thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation.asp?search=Insanity&q=author%3A"Albert+Einstein"
vs. the Old Chinese:
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/insanity-is-doing-the-same-thing-in-the-same-way/347345.html