“Imagination is everything; it is the preview of life’s coming attractions”

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions” is a popular quotation frequently attributed to physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955), but there is no reliable evidence that he ever said it. “Imagination is everything” has been cited in the 19th century; “Imagination is everything and on this depends the success of the scheme” was cited in 1907.
 
Two 1981 books are the earliest known citations of the quotation. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions” was credited to Einstein in Expect to Win (1981) by Bill Glass. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of coming attractions” was credited to Einstein in Reaching Your Possibilities through Commitment (1981) by Gerald W. Marshall.
 
   
Wikiquote: Talk:Einstein
Unsourced and dubious/overly modern sources
Einstein is one of those major iconic figures to whom many statements become attributed; unsourced attributions to him should usually be treated with some skepticism, and often a great deal of it.
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Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
. Earliest book found was Expect to Win by Bill Glass (1984), p. 20. The book doesn’t give any source in Einstein’s writing, other books don’t either, seems pretty unlikely to be real. Hypnosifl 00:48, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
   
Google News Archive
3 November 1907, Sunday Herald (Bridgeport, CT), pg. 18, col. 2:
Imagination is everything and on this depends the success of the scheme.
 
Google Books
Expect to Win
By Bill Glass
Waco, TX: Word Books
1981
Pg. 20:
Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” And this works both positively and negatively.
   
Google Books
Reaching Your Possibilities through Commitment
By Gerald W. Marshall
Ventura, CA Regal Books
1981
Pg. 24:
We need vivid imagination to create new ideas for success. Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of coming attractions.”
     
Google Books
Hidden Power:
How to Unleash the Power of Your Subconscious Mind
By James K. Van Fleet
West Nyack, NY: Parker Pub. Co.
1987
Pg. 72:
You are limited only by your imagination. As Albert Einstein, the renowned scientist, once said, “Imagination is everything; it is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
 
Google Books
The Money Nerve:
Navigating the Emotions of Money
By Robert Wm Wheeler, CPA
Bloomington, IN: Balboa Press
2013
Pg. 14:
Spending time by yourself gives you the ability to hear your own voice and discover your dreams. Einstein said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
 
ThinkExist 
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
Albert Einstein quotes (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)
 
BrainyQuote
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
Albert Einstein
 
Goodreads 
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
― Albert Einstein