English

Alternative forms

• trust everybody, but always cut the cards
• trust everybody, but cut the deck
• trust every man, but cut the cards
• trust your friends, but cut the cards

Proverb

trust everybody, but cut the cards

1. Have a general faith in the good intentions of others, but never neglect to take appropriate precautions against being deceived or cheated.
   • 1997, Donald L. Miller, City of the Century, ISBN 9780684831381, p. 526 (Google preview):

     A deep-dyed fatalist, sentimental yet cynical—"Trust everybody," he is fond of saying, "but cut the cards"—his running history of his Chicago tribe is a struggle of clan and family survival, with little help from outsiders.

   • 2013, William C. Prentiss, One Man In His Time: A Memoir, ISBN 9781491824627, p. 413 (Google preview):

     I was often reminded of Mr. Dooley's famous admonition to “Trust everybody, but cut the cards.” We did “cut the cards” by installing a fake camera high on one wall and pointed at the cash register.

   • 2014, Robert C. Chandler, Business and Corporate Integrity, ISBN 9780313395987, p. xxiv (Google preview):

     It's a version of President Ronald Reagen's famous statements “trust but verify” and “trust everybody, but cut the cards.” We the public are tired of being duped, and we are now ready to hold companies responsible and accountable.

Usage notes

• Many variations are found, as in:

• 1996, Susan Porter Benson, "Living on the Margin" in The Sex of Things (Victoria De Grazia, ed.), ISBN 9780520200340, p. 236 (Google preview):

Even in the most promising circumstances, a woman might trust her husband but still cut the cards.

• 1997, Ronald J. Hrebenar, Interest Group Politics in America, ISBN 9781563247033, p. 147 (Google preview):

As one lobbyist put it, "You trust your mother, but you always cut the cards."