Dr. Einstein was not successful in school, but he found something in the air from his own imagination and his own brain power, and look what he did.

Eartha Kitt invokes the popular (if often oversimplified) story of Albert Einstein as a poor student to argue that conventional academic success is not the sole measure of intelligence or future achievement. The emphasis on “something in the air” and “imagination…brain power” frames creativity and self-directed thinking as decisive forces—qualities that can flourish outside formal schooling. The remark also functions as encouragement: setbacks in institutional settings need not define a person’s potential, and transformative contributions may come from those who pursue their own intellectual instincts. In Kitt’s telling, Einstein becomes a symbol of resilience and unconventional genius rather than a literal case study in educational history.