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Who really said it

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none

Written by William Shakespeare 1564–1616 · English playwright & poet
Verified Free to reuse

Genuinely Shakespeare. The line is spoken by the Countess of Rousillon as she blesses her departing son Bertram in All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1 — first printed in the 1623 First Folio. The exact wording is confirmed in the Folger edition ↗.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none” — William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1 (First Folio, 1623)

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Provenance

The source

Work
All’s Well That Ends Well
Location
Act 1, Scene 1
Speaker
The Countess of Rousillon (to her son Bertram)
First printed
First Folio, 1623

Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father
In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend
Under thy own life’s key: be cheque’d for silence,
But never tax’d for speech.

The three famous clauses are the middle of a longer maxim the Countess gives Bertram; the popular short quote lifts them out of that speech.

Read Act 1, Scene 1 at the Folger Shakespeare Library

How we verified this

Public domain

All’s Well That Ends Well was written c. 1602–1605 and first printed in the 1623 First Folio — centuries before the 1931 U.S. copyright cutoff, so the text is firmly in the public domain.

Fact-check

So what’s the catch?

The attribution to Shakespeare is correct — the only distortions are small ones of framing and punctuation.

A character, not Shakespeare speaking directly context

The line is dialogue: the Countess of Rousillon says it to her son Bertram as he leaves for the French court (MIT text ↗). It’s genuine Shakespeare authorship, but it’s a mother’s parting advice inside a play, not a personal motto of the poet.

Modernized punctuation minor

Popular versions render it “do wrong to none” with a lowercase ‘do’ and often a full stop. In the verse the clause runs across a line break — “Love all, trust a few, / Do wrong to none:” — and continues into a longer sentence, as shown in the Folger edition ↗.

Verdict: authentic Shakespeare. The words are the Countess’s parting counsel to Bertram in All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1 (Wikiquote ↗).

Context

Why it resonates

Stripped to three clauses, the line reads as a tidy rule for living: open your heart widely, extend trust narrowly, and injure no one. In the play it is more pointed — a mother arming her son with worldly caution as he steps into a court full of people who will not all wish him well.

The maxim doesn’t stop at those three clauses. The Countess goes on: be a match for your enemy in strength but slow to use it, keep your friend as close as your own life, and be blamed for staying quiet rather than for talking too much — a fuller, more guarded piece of advice than the greeting-card version suggests.

Love all, trust a few, / Do wrong to none.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Love Wisdom Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Folger Shakespeare — All's Well, Act 1, Scene 1folger.edu

Authoritative modern edition; shows the exact lines in context.
MIT Shakespeare — All's Well 1.1 (full scene)shakespeare.mit.edu

The complete Countess speech in the public-domain Moby text.
Wikiquote — All's Well That Ends Wellen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations list, placing the line in Act I, Scene i.
Goodreads — the fuller passagegoodreads.com

Shows how the popular short quote is excerpted from the longer speech.
Wikipedia — All's Well That Ends Wellen.wikipedia.org

Background on the play, its dating (c. 1602–1605) and First Folio publication.

About the author

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

1564–1616 · English playwright & poet

William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon is the most-quoted writer in English, which also makes his name the internet’s single biggest magnet for invented “Shakespeare” quotes. This one, however, is real: it comes from All’s Well That Ends Well, one of his so-called “problem plays,” where the aphorism is put in the mouth of a character — the Countess of Rousillon — rather than spoken in Shakespeare’s own voice.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (London: 1623), the First Folio.

MLA (9th ed.)

Shakespeare, William. All’s Well That Ends Well. Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, 1623, act 1, sc. 1.

APA (7th ed.)

Shakespeare, W. (1623). All’s well that ends well. In Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/love-all-trust-a-few-do-wrong-to-none

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