no good deed goes unpunished

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".{{Cite book |last=Map |first=Walter |title=De Nugis Curialium |date=1923 |publisher=Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion |isbn=9788124107447 |editor-last=Hartland |editor-first=E. Sidney |series=Cymmrodorion Record Series, No. IX |pages=181 |language=en |translator-last=James |translator-first=Monague R. |trans-title=Of the trifles of courtiers |chapter=Of the Lad Eudo, who was deceived by the Devil |orig-date=12th century |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ydQgAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22left+no+good+deed+unpunished,+no+bad+one+unrewarded%22+eudo&pg=PA181}}

Conventional moral wisdom holds that evil deeds are punished by divine providence and good deeds are rewarded by divine providence:{{Cite web |last=O'Toole |first=Garson |date=April 30, 2019 |title=No Good Deed Goes Unpunished |url=https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/04/30/good-deed/ |access-date=2022-06-01 |website=Quote Investigator |language=en-US}}

{{Cquote|quote=For as punishment is to the evil act, so is reward to a good act. Now no evil deed is unpunished, by God the just judge. Therefore no good deed is unrewarded, and so every good deed merits some good.{{efn|{{wikisource-inline|Summa Theologiae/Supplement to the Third Part/Question 14#Art. 4 - Whether works done without charity merit any, at least temporal, good?}}}} |author =Thomas Aquinas|source=Summa Theologica}}

This is related to the concepts of Hell and of karma.

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.{{Cite book |last=Gill |first=Brendan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gDU6AAAAMAAJ&q=%22No+good+deed+goes+unpunished%22 |title=The Trouble of One House |date=1950 |publisher=Doubleday & Company, Inc. |location=Garden City, New York |page=28 |access-date=3 October 2018}} It is also featured prominently in the song "No Good Deed", from the 2003 hit Broadway musical Wicked.{{Cite news |date=September 14, 2012 |title=My Routine: Christine Dwyer, actress |work=Courier-Journal |url=http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120916/SCENE05/309160013/My-Routine-Christine-Dwyer-actress |access-date=15 October 2012}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Holy Joe's |url=http://holyjoe.org/poetry/adams3.htm |access-date=9 February 2020}}

In 2005, author David Helvarg introduced the concept that the punishment may be a form of retaliation, in a piece he wrote for Grist Magazine, "Remember that sign they hung up in an EPA office during the Reagan administration, 'No good deed goes unpunished'? Under George Bush, no good science goes unpunished."{{Cite news |last=David Helvarg |date=2005-01-03 |title=David Helvarg, marine activist, answers questions |work=Grist Magazine |url=https://grist.org/article/helvarg1}}

• Flogging a dead horse
• Only the good die young
• Tragic hero

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• {{wiktionary-inline|no good deed goes unpunished}}

Category:Adages