There is no substantive evidence that George Bernard Shaw used this line. QI locates a related formulation by Sydney J. Harris in 1969 and another by Thomas Szasz in 1973; the exact compact wording appears later, with its author unestablished.
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself” Modern saying of uncertain authorship; no substantive Shaw source found. Related formulations: Sydney J. Harris (1969) and Thomas Szasz (1973). · Verbatim: “it is one’s daily actions that shape the inner personality”
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Provenance
The source
Early related statement
Sydney J. Harris, syndicated column, 18 April 1969
Another antecedent
Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin (1973)
Exact modern formulation
Documented by QI in a 1996 book with Mary McCarthy credit, not verified authorship
it is one’s daily actions that shape the inner personality
QI’s investigation ↗ separates the early Harris and Szasz formulations from later unsupported Shaw and McCarthy credits.
Harris’s biography ↗ gives the newspaper context in which his related observation appeared.
The exact compact wording has not been tied to an established original writer. Harris’s related 1969 passage is modern copyrighted material; only a short comparison fragment is reproduced.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Often misattributed
The well-known credit has a weaker paper trail than the underlying idea.
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Unconfirmed attribution: George Bernard Shaw
QI ↗ finds no substantive evidence for the Shaw credit.
~
Unconfirmed attribution: Mary McCarthy
QI ↗ locates a 1996 attribution but no substantive evidence that McCarthy used the saying.
✓Harris supplies an early related idea; the exact compact saying remains of uncertain authorship.
Context
Why it mattered
The early Harris passage pushes back against the idea of a fixed inner identity waiting to be discovered. He emphasizes repeated actions rather than introspection; the later two-sentence slogan keeps that contrast but drops the explanation of how a self is made.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Sydney J. Harris wrote the syndicated Strictly Personal newspaper column and collected many of his essays in books. His 1969 argument that a person makes a self through daily actions is an early documented relative of this modern saying, rather than proof that he coined its exact wording.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The primary source (Chicago)
Best-available chronology: Quote Investigator. “Life Is Not About Finding Yourself. Life Is About Creating Yourself.” September 28, 2021, updated March 20, 2025. Harris antecedent: Record-Gazette, April 18, 1969, 1.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/life-isnt-about-finding-yourself-life-is-about-creating/