“No good deed goes unpunished.”
Roman Candle (Leticia Baldridge), p. 129 (1956)
Source: This famous quip was first quoted in print by Luce's social secretary Letitia Baldrige in Roman Candle (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1956), 129: "When I would entreat her to engage in resolving a specific case, she replied, 'No good deed goes unpunished, Tish, remember that.'" Oscar Wilde, Billy Wilder, and Andrew Mellon have also been cited as sources, but without written evidence.
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Clare Boothe Luce7
American writer, politician, ambassador, journalist and ant… 1903–1987Related quotes
David Helvarg (1951) American journalist
Source: Grist magazine, January 3, 2005.
Sarada Devi (1853–1920) Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna
[In the Company of the Holy Mother, 124-125]
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
τί λοιπὸν ἢ ἀπολαύειν τοῦ ζῆν συνάπτοντα ἄλλο ἐπ ἄλλῳ ἀγαθόν, ὥστε μηδὲ τὸ βραχύτατον διάστημα ἀπολείπειν;
XII, 29
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XII
“We will take the good-will for the deed.”
Francois Rabelais book Gargantua and Pantagruel
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 49.