Compare Androcles' Lion and Character Witness, two Tropes that can prove the exact opposite. If someone sees a hero going through this, it may lead to Sympathy for the Hero. Compare Being Good Sucks, where it's the act of being good (rather than the deeds themselves) that brings suffering, and contrast Laser-Guided Karma where every deed (good or otherwise) gets paid back in spades. Sometimes results from Sparing the Final Mook, if it turns out that said mook is either a Not-So-Harmless Villain or has some other way to cause misery for the good guys. Very often, it is a consequence of doing Not Quite the Right Thing. The Wide-Eyed Idealist is prone to this, and tends to turn them into a Knight in Sour Armor at best. Named for a well-known saying attributed to Clare Boothe Luce. In many cases whether a bad outcome was undeserved or not depends on the details.Īs Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long observes in one story, "Good intentions are no substitute for knowing how the buzzsaw works." Which doesn't mean that life is not often cruelly unjust, it merely means that things are often not as simple as they look at first glance.
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Sometimes good intentions bring unjust punishment, but sometimes good intentions result in very bad results because the good-intentioned person was also foolish, incompetent, ignorant, or just mistaken. It should also be noted that this trope is more complicated than it looks. If they stick it through even to the end, knowing what's coming to them, it shows who they are in the dark. Not every hero can handle this, and if it happens often enough or particularly badly enough, a hero may very well fall. On the other hand, it can also happen to a villain making a Sudden Principled Stand or showing that Even Evil Has Standards. Or being targeted by people who assume you have Chronic Hero Syndrome and so will be glad to help them for free. More often, helping out exposes the hero to some other danger, like the wrath of a villain whose plans were disrupted by the good deed, or the wrath of a populace that is opposed to the method of help, such as in many Burn the Witch! stories that involve actual witches, or being Arrested for Heroism. If this happens because the hero doesn't want unnecessary violence, it can be a case of Pacifism Backfire. It certainly has the ring of one of his sayings.If this happens because the hero helps people who are ungrateful, it can be a case of All of the Other Reindeer or The Farmer and the Viper. See Cassell's Humourous Quotations edited by Nigel Rees. 'No good deed goes unpunished' is a remark attributed to Oscar Wilde, who lived from 1854-1900. : Very good line George came out with at dinner: "No good deed ever goes unpunished." (Joe Orton, _Diaries_, June 13, 1967) : Pavia was in great form to-day: "Every good deed brings its own punishment." (James Agate, _Ego_, January 25, 1938) Listed in the sixteenth edition of Bartlett's _Familiar Quotations_, edited by Justin Kaplan. Mellon, and writer Clare Boothe Luce, but its ultimate origin is unknown. *********Life is so unfair that one is more likely to get into some sort of trouble than be rewarded if one attempts to do a good deed.************ It was attributed to American financier John P. Titelman, in _Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings_ (1996), writes: But I googled and found that it is attributed to Clare Booth Luce. : : One of my favorite sayings because it is SO true. : : : Another one I've been hearing, lately. In Reply to: Re: "no good deed goes unpunished" posted by masakim on December 31, 2003 Spanish translation: el que nació pa' redendor, sale crucificado
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No good deed goes unpunished Spanish translation: el que nació pa' redendor, sale crucificado