For many years, a text has been circulating on the RuNet under the title “When I fell in love with myself” - it is claimed that this speech was written by Charlie Chaplin himself on his 70th birthday. We checked whether these are indeed the words of the famous actor.

The original source in Russian is difficult to track down, since the text is more than ten years old, and its distribution mainly occurs through social networks. In addition, there are different translation options. A similar speech can be found in Facebook, "VKontakte", "LiveJournal", "Odnoklassniki", "Snobe" and on "Yandex.Zene".

For example, on the website of a historical magazine "Amateur" This is the version of life lessons from Chaplin - three times Oscar winner, not a two-time Oscar winner, as stated on the website: “As I began to love myself, I realized that sadness and suffering were only warning signs that I was living against my own nature. Today I know that this is honesty.

When I fell in love with myself, I realized how much you can offend a person by imposing on him the fulfillment of my desires, realizing that it is not the time for this and the person is not ready for this, even if this person is myself. Today I call it respect.

As I began to love myself, I stopped wishing for a different life and was able to see that everything around me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it maturity.

As I began to love myself, I realized that no matter what the circumstances, I am in the right place at the right time and everything happens at the right moment. I can always be calm. Now I call it confidence.

When I began to love myself, I stopped wasting my time and stopped dreaming about future grand projects. Today I do what brings me joy, what I love to do, what makes my heart happy, and I do it at my own pace. Today I call it simplicity.

When I loved myself, I freed myself from everything that was harmful to my health - food, people, things, situations. Everything that leads me astray. Today I call it self-love.

When I started to love myself, I stopped trying to be right all the time, and since then I've been wrong less often. Today I realized that this is modesty.

When I began to love myself, I stopped living in the past and worrying about the future. Today I live for today, in which everything happens. I call it satisfaction.

As I began to love myself, I realized that my mind could bother me and even make me sick. But when I was able to connect him to my heart, he immediately became a valuable ally. Today I call this connection the wisdom of the heart.

We no longer need to be afraid of arguments, clashes or any problems with ourselves and others. Even stars collide, and new worlds are born from their collisions. Today I know that this is life."

You can listen to a slightly different version in the video attached below.

Chaplin celebrated his 70th birthday in 1959. They say that the actor delivered this fiery speech right during the celebration of his anniversary, and after it the audience gave a standing ovation. But there is no evidence or mention of the fact that he even said these words, neither in his autobiography, nor in books and films about his life, nor in authoritative articles. And the reason is simple: the speech appeared almost two decades after the actor’s death.

Chaplin died in 1977, and in 2001 came out a book with a title quite similar to the title of this speech, “When I Loved Myself Enough.” Her wrote Kim McMillen co-authored with Alison McMillen. Kim worked as a teacher and was a volunteer chaplain at a hospital, and in her free time she wrote down various wise thoughts, made collections of them and gave them to her friends. In 1996, at the age of 53, Kim died, but her daughter Alison continued her mother’s work and published a book five years later.

Image: cover of one of the publications, Pan Australia

We read the book and found phrases there that were very similar to the words attributed to Chaplin. It's not verbatim, but it's a very close resemblance. Below are some examples with our translation.

“When I loved myself enough I came to see emotional pain is a signal I am operating outside the truth.” Translation: “When I loved myself enough, I realized that emotional pain was a signal that I was living contrary to the truth.”

“When I loved myself enough I began to know I was in the right place at the right time and I could relax.” Translation: “When I loved myself enough, I began to realize that I was in the right place at the right time, and I was able to relax.”

“When I loved myself enough I quit having to be right which makes being wrong meaningless.” Translation: “When I loved myself enough, I stopped trying to be right, so the concept of being wrong became meaningless.”

McMillen's 2003 book released in Brazil in Portuguese under the title Quando Me Amei de Verdade. On the Internet you can find small pieces from this edition. For example, this is what one of the wisdom looks like: “Quando me amei de verdade pude compreender que, em qualquer circunstância, eu estava no lugar certo, na hora certa. Então pude relaxar.” Translation: “When I truly began to love myself, I was able to understand that in every circumstance I was in the right place at the right time. So I was able to relax."

Apparently, it was the Brazilians or other speakers of Portuguese who began to attribute these words to Chaplin - that speech in Portuguese published on blogs under the actor’s name back at least in 2007. And in the same year, a Brazilian scholar of Chaplin's texts released refutation, and later published and an investigation in which it was suggested that the fake appeared in Portuguese-speaking countries. According to him, the text began to evolve thanks to Chaplin's Spanish-speaking fans, and then the text was translated back into English, after which it was distributed to other countries.

Thus, it seems that there is a Russian translation of an English translation of a Portuguese translation of an English-language book circulating around the RuNet, the words of which were attributed to Chaplin.

Image: Still from the film City Lights (1931)