All for one, one for all

Origin of: All for one, one for all

All for one, one for all

The motto made famous by the three musketeers in Alexandre Dumas The Three Musketeers (1842), “All for one, one for all that is our device.” Shakespeare thought of it before Dumas but had it the other way round in The Rape of Lucrece (1594), “One for all, or all for one we gage.” In its Latin form, unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno it was adopted as the unofficial motto of Switzerland during the latter half of the 19th century. The fact that it exists in Latin indicates that it might be a lot older, but no ancient Latin citation has been found. Therefore, Shakespeare continues to take credit for its origin.