The network is popularly attributed to the Irish playwright that the meaning of life is not in choosing the most suitable social role, but in the invention of its own. We decided to check if he said something like that.

This phrase with the attribution of the show is often found on sites with selection quotes of famous personalities and in modern motivational literature. Users of social networks are also divided on their pages ("VKontakte" Facebook*, Instagram*, X, Threads*) and the Platform blog (Livejournal, "Zen").

In the Russian -language segment of the Internet, the quote has spread in several variations, the most common ones - “life is not to find itself. Life consists in creating yourself ”and“ life is not a search for yourself. Life is a creation of oneself. ” In English - the native language of the show, in which all his works are written - in popular sources there is only one wording: “Life is not ABOUT FINING YOURSELF. Life is ABOUT CREATING YOURSELF. " However, “verified” could not find such a phrase in Collected works Shownor in authoritative resources specializing in the study of his heritage, sites International Society of the show And British Society of the showFounded during the life of the playwright.

Judging by data The Quote Investigator portal, specializing in checking the authorship of quotes, was first assigned the show in 1997. Then, an article about the American judicial system was published in the number of the California newspaper San Francisco Chronicle. The note included a comment by the deputy state defender Claire Mayer, where she used this phrase, attributing her authorship of the show. Since the death of the playwright in 1950, all his preserved written heritage was carefully studied, so it is doubtful that after 47 years a woman, in no way connected with the research and work of the show, somewhere found his new, previously unknown quote. However, the authors of QUOTE Investigator write, a similar thought in different formulations met in the press and literature and earlier, however, either without indicating authorship at all, or with reference to other people, such as Psychoanalyst Karen Horney or writer Mary McCarthy.

Barry Popik - an American specialist in etymology, who acted as a consultant to many authoritative reference books, such as the Oxford Dictionary of the English language, in 2021 also Interested the origin of the quotation analyzed. Like Quote Investigator, he did not find evidence that the show had any relation to this statement, and also could not establish this author.

Despite the fact that the show is quoted much less often than, for example, Mark Twain or Alberta Einstein, also quite often he is attributed to words that the playwright did not speak. Previously, “verified” has already disassembled quotes, erroneously attributed shows, for example: ““A happy family is an early paradise".

Thus, there is no confirmation that Bernard Show is the author of the phrase “Life is not to find itself. Life consists in creating yourself. ” This is a fairly common thought found in different formulations, so it is not easy to find out who exactly belonged to such an idea. However, in the works of other written sources that came out of the pen of the Irish playwright, it is not found.

*The Russian authorities consider Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook, Instagram and Threads, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Bain News ServicePublisher, Public Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons