All's Well That Ends Well Famous Quotes

All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown; Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.

Helena in Act 4, Scene 4, before the final act — she has manipulated events so thoroughly that the ending is not yet clear. The proverb is her navigation system, not her verdict.

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

The old Countess to Bertram in Act 1, Scene 1, sending him to the King's court — three short instructions that take about three words each and a lifetime to get right. Bertram will fail all three before the play ends.

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope.

Helena alone in Act 1, Scene 1, deciding to pursue Bertram despite the impossibility of the match — she is arguing against fatalism, claiming that what looks like destiny is actually human choice.

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.

A lord commenting in Act 4, Scene 3 after Bertram's character has been fully exposed — the moral of the play delivered not as judgement but as observation. Good and ill are woven, not separated.

Impossible be strange attempts to those That weigh their pains in sense and do suppose What hath been cannot be.

Helena in Act 1, Scene 1, before setting out to cure the King — her argument is that calling something impossible is a failure of imagination rather than an assessment of the facts.

Oft expectation fails and most oft there Where most it promises, and oft it hits Where hope is coldest.

Helena to the King in Act 2, Scene 1, asking for a chance to cure him — she is arguing that the most desperate cases are sometimes the most curable. The logic is counterintuitive, and she is about to prove it.

Good alone Is good without a name. Vileness is so.

The King to Bertram in Act 2, Scene 3, defending his choice to give Helena in marriage to a man above her station — goodness is self-sufficient, he argues; it does not require a noble title to be real.

Virtue and she Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.

The King to the lords of France in Act 2, Scene 3, explaining why Helena's virtue is sufficient dowry — he will supply the material wealth; she brings what cannot be supplied.

A young man married is a man that's marr'd.

Parolles to Bertram in Act 2, Scene 3, advising him not to accept the King's instruction to marry Helena — the advice is self-serving and based on a proverb, which is where Parolles's wisdom consistently runs out.

I know I love in vain, strive against hope; Yet in this captious and intenible sieve I still pour in the waters of my love.

Helena to the Countess in Act 1, Scene 3, confessing her love for Bertram — a captious sieve is one that catches nothing. She knows she is pouring love into something that cannot hold it, and continues anyway.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

The Widow of Florence in Act 3, Scene 5, speaking with Diana — a line delivered by a minor character that lands as the play's implicit moral verdict on Bertram and Parolles, both of whom have been conspicuously dishonest.

Service is no heritage.

Lavatch the Clown in Act 1, Scene 3, explaining why he wants to marry — serving at a great house passes to no one's children. The argument for marriage is entirely financial, which the Countess finds amusing.

I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest, That I protest I simply am a maid.

Helena to the King and assembled lords in Act 2, Scene 3, choosing Bertram — she presents her simplicity as her distinction, and the doubled 'simply' / 'simple' insists on it.

I love not many words.

Parolles in Act 3, Scene 6, whose name literally means 'words' in French — the joke is pointed and he is unaware of it. He has spent most of the play talking.

All yet seems well; and if it end so meet, The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.

The King's closing couplet in Act 5, Scene 3 — 'yet' and 'seems' are doing significant work. The play has not quite resolved into happiness; the ending is provisional, and Shakespeare's phrasing keeps it that way.