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The phrase "No good deed goes unpunished" is a sardonic commentary on the frequency with which acts of kindness backfire on those who offer them. In other words, those who help others are doomed to suffer as a result of their helpfulness.
The phrase "No good deed goes unpunished" is a sardonic commentary on the frequency with which acts of kindness backfire on those who offer them. In other words, those who help others are doomed to suffer as a result of their helpfulness.
Background
The phrase is first attested in Walter Map's 12th-century '' De nugis curialium'', in whose fourth chapter the character ''Eudo'' adhered to inverted morality "left no good deed unpunished, no bad one unrewarded". Conventional moral wisdom holds that evil deeds are punished by divine providence and good deeds are rewarded by divine providence: This is related to the concepts ofHell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
and of karma.
Modern expression
The modern expression "No good deed goes unpunished" is an ironic twist on this conventional morality. The ironic usage of the phrase appears to be a 20th-century invention, found for example in Brendan Gill's 1950 novel ''The Trouble of One House''. It is also featured prominently in the song " No Good Deed", from the 2003 hit Broadway musical '' Wicked''. A satirical poem by Franklin Pierce Adams with the title "''No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (So Shines a Good Deed in a Naughty World)''" also exists. In 2005, author David Helvarg introduced the concept that the punishment may be a form ofretaliation
Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." ...
, in a piece he wrote for '' Grist Magazine'', "Remember that sign they hung up in an EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
office during the Reagan administration, 'No good deed goes unpunished'? Under George Bush, no good science goes unpunished."
See also
* Flogging a dead horse * Only the good die young * Tragic heroNotes
References
External links
*{{wiktionary-inline, no good deed goes unpunished Adages