Etymology
Often believed to be from the title of William Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well.
More likely attributed to John Heywood (c. 1497 – c. 1580), who wrote plays for the royal court from the early 1530s onwards, some sixty years before Shakespeare made his way in the Elizabethan theatre. Although his book of proverbs was the first to use this phrasing, it originates even further back.
In 1381, in J. R. Lumby’s Chronicon Henrici Knighton, the line ‘If the ende be wele, than is alle wele.’ seems to be a more likely origin.
Proverb
all's well that ends well
- A happy ending makes up for everything that has gone before.[1]
Translations
A happy ending makes up for everything that has gone before...
- Bengali: সব ভাল তার শেষ ভাল যার (śbo bhal tar śeś bhal jar)
- Catalan: tot va bé si acaba bé
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 結局好，樣樣好／结局好，样样好 (jiéjí hǎo, yàngyàng hǎo), 皆大歡喜／皆大欢喜 (zh) (jiēdàhuānxǐ)
- Czech: konec dobrý, všechno dobré, dobrý konec vše napraví
- Dutch: eind goed, al goed (nl)
- Esperanto: fino bona, ĉio bona
- Finnish: loppu hyvin, kaikki hyvin
- French: tout est bien qui finit bien (fr)
- German: Ende gut, alles gut (de)
- Greek: τέλος καλό, όλα καλά (el) (télos kaló, óla kalá)
- Hebrew: סוֹף טוֹב הַכֹּל טוֹב (sof tov hakkól tov)
- Hindi: अंत भला तो सब भला (ant bhalā to sab bhalā)
- Hungarian: minden jó, ha a vége jó (hu)
- Icelandic: allt er gott sem endar vel (is)
- Irish: gach rud i gceart ach sinn a bheith slán
- Italian: tutto è bene quel che finisce bene, tutto è bene ciò che finisce bene
- Japanese: 終わり良ければすべて良し (owari yokereba subete yoshi)
- Korean: 끝이 좋으면 다 좋다 (kkeuchi jo'eumyeon da jota)
- Malay:
- Jawi: يڠ باءيق اخيرڽ باءيق جوݢ
- Rumi: yang baik akhirnya baik juga
- Norwegian: når enden er god er allting godt
- Polish: wszystko dobre, co się dobrze kończy
- Portuguese: tudo fica bem quando acaba bem, tudo está bem quando termina bem, bem está o que bem acaba
- Romanian: totul e bine când se termină cu bine
- Russian: всё хорошо́, что хорошо́ конча́ется (vsjo xorošó, što xorošó končájetsja)
- Scottish Gaelic: 's fhearr deireadh math na droch thoiseach
- Serbo-Croatian: sve dobro što se dobro završi
- Slovak: koniec dobrý, všetko dobré, koniec všetko napraví
- Slovene: konec dober, vse dobro
- Spanish: bien está lo que bien acaba, a buen fin no hay mal tiempo, a buen fin no hay mal principio
- Swedish: slutet gott, allting gott
- Turkish: sonu iyi biterse
- Ukrainian: все добре, що добре закінчується (vse dobre, ščo dobre zakinčujetʹsja)
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References
page 344 in The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (2015) by Jennifer Speake
