Pope Francis mentioned, “Rivers don’t drink their very own water; timber don’t eat their very own fruit; the solar doesn’t shine on itself and flowers don’t unfold their perfume for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to assist one another. No matter how troublesome it’s …. life is sweet when you’re comfortable, however a lot better when others are comfortable due to you.”
Fact Check
In September 2022, Snopes readers requested a few quote that has been broadly shared and falsely attributed to Pope Francis. The quote has a number of variations, all extolling the advantage of residing selflessly.
The longer model of the quote reads, “Rivers don’t drink their very own water; timber don’t eat their very own fruit; the solar doesn’t shine on itself and flowers don’t unfold their perfume for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to assist one another. No matter how troublesome it’s …. life is sweet when you’re comfortable, however a lot better when others are comfortable due to you.”
Here’s one instance of the quote attributed to Francis, as posted in a meme on Facebook.
Versions of quote have additionally been broadly shared on-line in Spanish, with various attributions. Some posts declare Pope Francis mentioned it, others haven’t any attribution.
We couldn’t discover any file of Francis making this assertion — and an early model of it appeared on the web effectively earlier than Francis grew to become pope in 2013. A communications skilled and novice poet who makes use of the pen identify Gonzalinho da Costa traced an identical assertion to a 2009 submit on an internet site known as Meditation Relaxation Sans Stress, archived right here. There, the quote says:
We know that timber don’t eat their very own fruitscows don’t drink their very own milkrivers dont drink their very own waterLet us additionally study to serve our sisters brothersand all objects of natureTo safe our current and humanity’s future
The web site linked the phrases to the Vedas, historic Hindu scriptures (“As mentioned in most historic scripture of world The Vedas”). The identify Prof. Lallan Prasad appeared below the phrases. We reached out to a University of Delhi professor with that very same identify, asking if he wrote the phrases or is aware of their origin, and can replace this story if we obtain a response.
A really related quote appeared within the 2019 function taking part in recreation “Days Gone.” A personality within the recreation, Rikki, states, “Rivers don’t drink their very own water. Trees don’t eat their very own fruit. And clouds don’t swallow their very own rain. What nice ones have is at all times for the advantage of others.”
As of this writing, we haven’t discovered the unique supply of the quote however will replace this story if we do. We discovered no proof it was a press release made by Pope Francis, nevertheless, and as famous above, what seems to be an unique on-line model of the quote was posted 4 years earlier than he grew to become pope.
Sources:Da Costa, Gonzalinho. “Another Fake Quote Attributed to the Pope.” Poetry of Gonzalinho Da Costa, 10 Dec. 2020, https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2020/12/another-fake-quote-attributed-to-pope.html.Saab, Hannah. “Days Gone: 10 Best Quotes.” ScreenRant, 27 Sept. 2021, https://screenrant.com/days-gone-best-quotes/.“SEVA.” Meditation-Relaxation-sans-Stress. 2009, https://net.archive.org/net/20201011045759/https://websites.google.com/web site/meditationrelaxationsansstress/seva.
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