On social networks and on websites with quotes, you can often find words allegedly from Robin Williams about “the worst thing in life” and dying alone. We checked whether this is really his phrase.

The quote has been circulating on the Internet for several years, and it is problematic to trace its earliest appearance with the mention of Williams’ authorship. This is partly due to the fact that often the phrase is simply superimposed on a photograph of the actor.

In English, the quote usually goes something like this: “I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone.” And translated into Russian: “I used to think that the worst thing in life was to die alone. This is wrong. The worst thing is to end up surrounded by people who make you feel alone.”

Due to translation liberties exists many versions this phrases. There are posts on VKontakte with this quote collect thousands of likes, she meets and in Facebook, and in Twitter. And if you google these words, the search engine will return a mountain sites with quotes - authorship everywhere attributed to Williams.

And Williams is indeed associated with this phrase, but is not its author. Lyrics taken from the feature film "The best dad" (World's Greatest Dad) 2009 starring Williams. There he played Lance, a school teacher who dreams of becoming a famous writer. After the death of his son under unusual circumstances, Lance's life changed greatly, which became the plot of the story. The film was written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait.

If you're interested, Williams' original lyrics can be heard at the 1:40 mark in the video below.

As a result, an interesting situation arose: these words were actually spoken by Robin Williams, but it cannot be said that this was his phrase. Similarly, you can't call Marlon Brando the author of the famous line "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse" or Anthony Hopkins the author of the line "I ate his liver with beans and a good Chianti."

Image: Still from the film Healer Adams (1998)