I agree, that line is widely misused, and it clearly doesn't cover every type of insanity. Like you say, too, sometimes conditions change and the "same thing" d

I agree, that line is widely misused, and it clearly doesn't cover every type of insanity. Like you say, too, sometimes conditions change and the "same thing" does, in fact, have different results. Actions in society, after all, only have meaning in context. Economically, for example, if you spent 50 years as an artist, your sales are likely to vary a great deal over that time based as much on economic conditions entirely beyond your control as any action of yours. This quote, though, I like: "From the standpoint of the psychology of personal constructs we may define a disorder as any personal construction which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation." It seems like the broader, common quote could have been derived from that, imprecisely, losing most useful meaning in the process.