Albert Einstein? Apocryphal? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Solving a difficult problem requires hard work for an extended period. To reinforce this viewpoint people enjoy sharing the following humble remark which has been attributed to Albert Einstein:
It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
I have been unable to find a solid citation, and I have become skeptical of this ascription. Is this another fake Einstein quotation? Would you please explore this topic.
Reply from Quote Investigator: The evidence supporting the ascription to Albert Einstein is not substantive. Alice Calaprice, the editor of the important 2010 collection “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press, placed this quotation in the “Probably Not by Einstein” section of her reference.1
Albert Einstein died in 1955. The earliest match known to QI appeared in the 1996 compilation “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century” edited by Jerry Mayer and John P. Holms which contained this entry on page seventeen:2
It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
Unfortunately, the editors did not provide a citation. Hence, QI does not know where the editors found the quotation.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
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