“You can recognize a really good idea by the fact that its implementation seems impossible in the first place.”
Google shows that the internet often attributes this statement to Einstein, but never with a source. It does not occur in any book in Google Books.
Misattributed
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Albert Einstein702
German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativi… 1879–1955Related quotes
“An idea is nothing, its implementation everything.”
Alexander Kronrod (1921–1986) Russian mathematician
Attributed to Kronrod in: Landis, E. M., Yaglom, I. M., Remembering AS Kronrod, The Mathematical Intelligencer 24.1 (2002) p. 22-30
C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist
C. West Churchman (1979, p. 21) as cited in: Interfaces (1982) Vol 12, p. 12
1980s and later
“In fact, all kinds of men, and not merely architects, can recognize a good piece of work…”
Vitruvius book De architectura
Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book VI, Chapter VIII, Sec. 10
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) German poet, critic and scholar
Philosophical Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 116
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
Stepan Bandera (1909–1959) Ukrainian anti-communist
Source: "Idea and Man in the Ideological Movement" (1954)