Did Sartre Really Say "Life is C between B and D"?
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It is often attributed to the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. But is that really true?
Searching the Internet
If you're curious, you search.
Korean, English, and French
I first searched on Google in Korean. Surprisingly, the first result was about music: a 2022 album titled "Inviting you to a place where choice and luck coexist" by BGM Instructor. Then came debates about whether Sartre actually said this or not.
Searching in English for "Life is C between B and D" turned up almost nothing. Wondering if it might appear more in French (since Sartre was French), I tried that too. I don't remember much from my college French class, so I used Google Translate: "La vie est C entre B et D." But the results were equally disappointing.
If Sartre really said this, you'd expect to see far more results in English and French than in Korean. But it's the opposite.
I also asked ChatGPT, which gave different answers each time:
A French philosopher named Jean Paul Charles Romain Lecarre said it.
A philosopher named Jean Paul Charles Lecarre said it.
A Catholic priest named Jean Paul Lecarre said it.
They all agreed it wasn't Sartre, but rather someone with a similar name – though even that wasn't certain.
Searching by Time
Then I searched by date to find the oldest records.
The oldest Korean record I found was from March 29, 2000 on a government website. There were no earlier records in English ("Life is C between B and D") or French ("la vie est C entre B et D" or "la vie est C entre B et T").
The oldest English mention I found was from talking about making wise choices. It didn't mention Sartre or any French philosopher. In with the same title. In finally mentioned "a French philosopher" in connection with this quote.
Doubts
A few questions come to mind:
First, if this were truly Sartre's quote, wouldn't it have appeared in the West first and then spread to Korea? Yet the earliest record is in Korea, and it only shows up in the West about 20 years later. Maybe this phrase originated in Korea and slowly made its way abroad.
Second, is this really a French saying at all? In French, birth is "naissance" and death is "mort." Those don't start with B and D. N and M are adjacent letters, so there's not even room for C between them. And while the French word for cradle (berceau) does start with B, the French word for grave (tombe) starts with T – so it still doesn't quite fit the "B and D" formula.
Conclusion
Based on everything I've found, I conclude:
This isn't originally a French phrase – it's in English.
The earliest records appear in Korea and later spread abroad.
Why did people start attributing it to Sartre? Perhaps it just "felt" like something he might say.
But here are the facts:
Sartre did not say this.
There's no record of a philosopher named Jean Paul Charles or a priest named Jean Paul Lecarre.
The quote's true origin remains unknown.
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