“We will take the good-will for the deed.”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 49.
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Francois Rabelais105
major French Renaissance writer 1494–1553Related quotes
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
“You must take the will for the deed.”
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2
Jun Hong Lu (1959) Australian Buddhist leader
Quotes from Words of Wisdoms Vol.2
“No good deed goes unpunished.”
Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987) American writer, politician, ambassador, journalist and anti-Communist activist
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.
