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The idiom “all’s well that ends well” means that as long as the end result is positive, any difficulties faced in achieving a goal are acceptable. It was popularized by Shakespeare’s play of the same name, but was already in common use among Britons.
The idiomatic expression “all’s well that ends well” is usually used when a particularly confusing set of circumstances leads to a desired conclusion. The saying means that no matter what situations, problems or chaos may ensue in trying to reach the desired conclusion, it is fine as long as the end result is positive. The phrase can also mean that, even if a set of circumstances didn’t start in a good way, the situation ended up in an acceptable way. The phrase can sometimes be analogous to the idiom “the ends justify the means”.
Other similar, though slightly different, interpretations of the phrase may include using the idiom to express feelings that the difficulties of achieving a goal are not so important once the goal has been achieved. It could also be used to express the feeling that once a task or journey is finished, the situations one went through to get to the end seem acceptable, even though the situations may not have seemed acceptable at the time. The phrase “all’s well that ends well” isn’t typically used until the trip, activity, or goal has been completed. There are occasional instances where the phrase is used in the midst of a calamity to express optimism that the current situation won’t matter as long as the ending is positive.
“All’s well that ends well” is a British idiom and was most likely popularized by Shakespeare’s play which took the idiom as its title. The work, believed to have been written around 1604, tells the story of Helena, who endures many hardships and circumstances, and uses trickery and deceit to get her true love to acknowledge her as her wife. Helena’s verses include the line “all’s well that ends well”.
The idiom was probably already in common use among Britons before the introduction of Shakespeare’s work, although Shakespeare is often erroneously credited with coining the phrase. A Finnish proverb that probably came into use around the same time is translated into English as “the beginning is always difficult, at the end is thanksgiving”. The idiom “all’s well that ends well” was included in a collection of English proverbs compiled by John Heywood in 1546. Heywood worked for Henry VIII as a singer and playwright, and his collection of proverbs includes many sayings that continue to be used in the English language today.
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