Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno
Motto of Switzerland
Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno is a Latin phrase that means One for all, all for one. It is the unofficial motto of Switzerland.
A French version, Un pour tous, tous pour un, was made famous by Alexandre Dumas in the 1844 novel The Three Musketeers.
In 1594, William Shakespeare uses it in his poem The Rape of Lucrece to characterize people who take massive risks, including the poem’s villainous rapist king, Tarquin the Proud:
- The aim of all is but to nurse the life
- With honour, wealth, and ease, in waning age;
- And in this aim there is such thwarting strife,
- That one for all, or all for one we gage;
- As life for honour in fell battle’s rage;
- Honour for wealth; and oft that wealth doth cost
- The death of all, and all together lost.