The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (161 page)

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EVERY man for himself, and God for us all
1546
Dialogue of Proverbs
II. ix. L2
Praie and shifte eche one for hym selfe, as he can. Every man for hym selfe, and god for us all.
1615
White Devil
(ed. 2) 83
That by-word, Euery man for himselfe, and God for vs all, is vncharitable, vngodly.
1830
King's Own
III. xiii.
The captain .. ordered the sailor to leave the boat. ‘Every man for himself, and God for us all!’ was the cool answer of the refractory sea-man.
1979
Times
29 Dec. 12
Each for himself, and God for us all, as the elephant said when he danced among the chickens.
self-preservation
EVERY man for himself, and the Devil take the hindmost
The two earliest examples are more closely aligned in form to the preceding proverb. See also
DEVIL take the hindmost
.
1530
Eclogues
(EETS) i. 1009
Eche man for him selfe, and the fiende for all.
1573
108
V
Euery man for him selfe; and the Deuill for all.
1858
Women's Thoughts about Women
ii.
The world is hard enough, for two-thirds of it are struggling for the dear life—‘each for himself, and de'il tak the hindmost.’
1939
By Shores of Silver Lake
xxv.
There wasn't any standing in line …It was each fellow for himself and devil take the hindmost.
1957
tr.
G. Guareschi's Don Camillo & Devil
iv.
‘I'm paying for what I eat.’..‘Every man must pay for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’
self-preservation
EVERY man has his price
1734
in
Bee
VIII. 97
‘It is an old Maxim, that every Man has his Price,’ if you can but come up to it.
1798
Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole
. I. lxiv.
The political axiom generally attributed to him [Walpole] .. was perverted by leaving out the word
those
… He ascribed to the interested views of themselves .. the declaration of pretended patriots, of whom he said, ‘All those men have their price.’
1845
Smuggler
I. x.
‘You can do nothing with Mowle. He never took a penny in his life.’ ‘Oh, every man has his price.’
1949
Naked & Dead
II. xi.
It was the sort of deal his father might have pulled. ‘Every man has his price.’
1984
San Andreas
ix.
People are capable of being suborned, and while it may not be true that every man has his price, there are always those who have.
bribery and corruption
EVERY man is the architect of his own fortune
Although attributed to Bacon in quot. 1991, this was a saying of the Roman censor Appius Claudius Caecus (4th-3rd cent. BC): PSEUDO-SALLUST
Ad Caesarem Senem i. sed res docuit id verum esse
,
quod in carminibus Appius ait
,
fabrum esse suae quemque fortunae
, but experience has shown what Appius said in his verses to be true, that each man is the architect of his own fortune.
1533
Flowers for Latin Speaking
(1560) 24
A prouerbiall spekyng …Euery man .. is causer of his own fortune.
1649
Eikonoklastes
III. 542
They in whomsoeuer these vertues dwell .. are the architects of thir own happiness.
1707
Athenian
Sport 454
We are .. architects of our own fortune.
1818
Marriage
III. vi.
As every man is said to be the artificer of his own fortune, so every one .. had best be the artificer of their own friendship.
1873
Notes & Queries
4th Ser. XII. 514
We have not a commoner saying among us than ‘Every man is the architect of his own fortune,’ and we have very few much older.
1991
Times
5 June 18
Educationists complain of the limitations on their resources; but quantifying this in league tables proves the long-term truth of Bacon's dictum
quisque faber suae fortunae
, each the maker of his own fate.
self-help

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