Meaning & Analysis
Each person is responsible for their own well-being and should act in their own self-interest, while a divine power provides for the collective welfare of everyone.
Insights
Individual Agency vs. Collective Fate
The proverb explores the tension between individual agency and collective fate. It suggests a social model where people are expected to compete and fend for themselves, with the assurance that a higher power will ultimately ensure a fair or benevolent outcome for the group.
Justification for Self-Interest
It can be interpreted as a rationalization for prioritizing personal gain over communal responsibility. The second clause, 'and God for us all', serves to morally offset the potential selfishness of the first, suggesting that looking after oneself is part of a natural or divine order.
Abdication of Social Responsibility
The phrase can be seen as an abdication of social responsibility. By entrusting the collective good to God, individuals are freed from the obligation to care for others, making it a convenient motto for avoiding civic or charitable duties.
Individualism and Divine Providence
This proverb captures a pivotal tension in Western thought between emergent individualism and traditional religious collectivism. It reflects a worldview where personal ambition and self-reliance are paramount in daily life, while ultimate justice and collective well-being are deferred to divine providence.
Psychological Justification
The phrase often serves as a psychological justification for self-interested behavior. By invoking divine oversight ('God for us all'), an individual can rationalize prioritizing their own needs, framing personal ambition not as selfishness but as a natural role within a divinely ordered system.
Moral Ambiguity
The proverb's meaning is highly ambiguous and context-dependent. It can be expressed as a sincere belief in a balanced world or, as the 1615 quotation notes, as a cynical and 'uncharitable' excuse to neglect one's social duties. Its proximity to the variant '...and the devil for all' highlights this inherent moral flexibility.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The proverb is structured on a sharp contrast between the individual ('Every MAN for himself') and the collective under divine care ('God for us all'), creating a memorable and powerful dichotomy.
Parallelism
The balanced, parallel structure ('[agent] for [recipient]') gives the proverb a rhythmic, aphoristic quality that makes it easy to remember and quote.
Juxtaposition
The phrase juxtaposes a secular, pragmatic principle of self-reliance with a sacred, faith-based belief in universal salvation, encapsulating a complex worldview in a single sentence.
Transcription
Quotations
(Yee have a common say-ing . . . euery man).
That byword, Every man for himselfe, and God for vs all, is vncharitable, vngodly.
And a third [proverb] is as common, Every man for himselfe, and God (only) for all.
(Every one).
Every one hath care of himself, and God of all.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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