On Dec. 10, 2021, the Anxiety Freedom Today Facebook page posted a quote meme that featured a picture of actor Keanu Reeves with the following words: "No one has the right to judge you, because no one really knows what you have been through. They might have heard the stories, but they didn't feel what you felt in your heart."
While the sentiment expressed in the quote meme might be one that Reeves would agree with if he was asked, the fact is that there's no record of him ever saying it. As with many of the questionable quotes we report on, there are likely plenty of good and inspirational quotes that really did come from Reeves that should be highlighted instead of sharing the fake ones.
While Reeves' name didn't appear in the "no one has the right to judge you" meme, that didn't seem to matter in terms of how it was interpreted. The post received more than 194,000 reactions and 185,000 shares. The comments under the quote meme showed that users believed he said it.
We collected a small number of examples. Most of the more than 6,600 comments contained some variation of the phrase, "So true!"
"Keanu, I love you say what I feel every time."
"Love this man and he is so true."
"Keanu Reeves, you are an amazing human being. May God continue to shine through you."
"Absolutely true!! You are a beautiful soul, Keanu."
"Amen to this. Thanks Keanu."
"He knows deeply all what he's saying. A great actor, humble and enormous heart. God with him."
"Well that is true Keanu and I love your movies and I think you are a good man."
"He's a wonderful person. I like reading his quotes because it mirrors my feelings."
So, if Reeves didn't say it, then where did the quote come from?
A Google search with filters set to only show results for specific years in the past led us to a page on truthfollower.com. This appeared to indicate that the quote was published as early as 2013.
https://www.truthfollower.com/2013/10/no-one-has-right-to-judge-you-quotes.html
The dated image on the truthfollower.com page showed no picture of Reeves or any names. The specific words in the quote looked to have been originally created as an anonymous inspirational quote to be shared online.
In sum, no, Reeves wasn't the source of the "no one has the right to judge you" quote. This wasn't the first misleading claim we've covered about the actor, as readers can find on the page that contains our stories about him.