

It is not listed in the comprehensive collection “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press. Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Einstein ever made a remark of this type. Would you please explore this expression? Given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes understanding the problem and one minute resolving it.īecause there are so many different variations I do not have much confidence that this was actually said by the acclaimed genius. If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution. Albert Einstein? A Yale Professor? Apocryphal?ĭear Quote Investigator: The importance of laying the proper groundwork before attempting to solve a problem is emphasized in a popular statement that is usually attributed to the scientific luminary Albert Einstein.
