This quote about family happiness is often attributed to the Irish playwright. We checked whether the show is really the author of this phrase.

Quote “Happy Family is an early paradise” can be found in many collections aphorisms, Blogs And publications On social networks indicating the authorship of George Bernard show. On the platform "Zen"She is repeatedly mentioned as a statement of the show. This phrase has become popular and often Used In context Discussions family values and happiness. Many English -speaking sources also attributed The authorship of this quote is the famous Irish.

Translated into Russian, attributed to the playwright, is found in several variations: “A happy family is an early paradise”, “A happy family is a rehearsal of paradise”, “A happy family is an early sky”, and in the original it sounds like “a happy family is but an earlier heaven”. When studying the most complete Collected works The show "Verified" failed to find this quote in any of the published works. Appeal to scientific research of his work and collections his statements It also does not confirm the authorship of the famous playwright. There is no such quote in the Treatise on Parents and Children - an essay of the family of the family.

According to the study of the portal Quote investigator, the earliest mention of this quote can be found in the collection of church hymns Hymns for Public and Private Worship (“Hymns for public and private services”), compiled by John R. Burd and published in 1837. It has a anthem called Home Joys (“Home Joy”), the author of which was indicated by Sir John Bauring. The following lines were present in this hymn:

"A Glance of Heaven to See,
To none on earth is given;
And Yet - A Happy Family
IS But An Earlier Heaven. "

These lines can be translated as:

“Take a look at heaven
No one has been given on Earth;
And yet - a happy family
There is nothing more than an early paradise. ”

John Bauring (1792–1872) was a British politician, diplomat, linguist and writer. He held the post of Governor of Hong Kong (1854–1859) and was a member of the British parliament. Bauring assertedthat he played 200 languages and could speak 100 of them, which helped him in a diplomatic career and the compilation of translations of European poetry. Bauring wrote 88 hymns, some of which still Used In many churches.

J. King. Portrait of Sir John Baurning (1826). National Portrait Gallery, Great Britain. Source: Wikimedia Commons

In 1841, Baaring published the third edition of his book “Morning and evening prayers: with hymns and random prayer works”, where also Turned on The hymn "Home Joy", which contains a quote that was subsequently mistakenly attributed to Bernard show.

It is curious that the cause of confusion could be the location of quotes in collections of aphorisms. For example, in the collection Instant Quotation Dictionary 1974, two quotes about the family were nearby: “If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in the closet, make him dance” George Bernard Show and “The Happy Family is the Early Paradise” by John Baurning.

The same neighborhood of quotes was observed in other collections, for example in the book Reader's digest quotable quotes 1997. Readers probably accidentally endured authorship from one phrase to another when quoting.

A quote about a happy family began to be attributed to the show in Russian -speaking blogs. One of the earliest publications we found with erroneous attribution is a post with the heading "30+ wonderful quotes about family", Published on the Zen platform on December 9, 2019.

Thus, the quote “The Happy Family is the Early Paradise” does not belong to Bernard Show, but Sir John Bauering and comes from the anthem, written by him in the first half of the 19th century. The attribution of these words of the show became a common mistake, which, apparently, arose due to the close location of quotes in popular collections of aphorisms and continues to be replicated in various sources to this day.

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons