evidence: That quote, like all the others, sounds a lot like the one attributed to Einstein. And yet, if Morley's 1904 book is correct, it was said by Voltaire over 100 years before Einstein was even born. With all of these different variations, one can't help but wonder: from where did this quote actually originate, and from whom? In the end, be it Einstein, Renan, Flaubert or Voltaire, I believe that the occasional reappearance of this saying in various historical texts—all quite similar in meaning but by different authors—is strong evidence that the saying itself might just have been a standard cliché of the period, rather than something that one person singularly said on their own.