Love All Trust A Few Do

This practical maxim is spoken by the Countess of Rossillion to her son Bertram at the opening of All's Well That Ends Well (c. 1604–1605), as he prepares to leave for the French court. It functions as a maternal parting instruction — a compact ethical code for a young man entering a dangerous world. The play, one of Shakespeare's "problem plays," is itself deeply concerned with the gap between what people appear to be and what they actually are, giving this seemingly simple advice an ironic weight throughout the drama.