"No good deed goes unpunished"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 07:23:05AM -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> This is another one of those cynical proverbs (like "There's
> a sucker born every minute") that gets frequently quoted.
> The earliest reference I have to it is in the title of
> Irving Shulman's novel (1956, IIRC), "Good Deeds Must Be
> Punished."  Has anyone found anything earlier?

The latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs has:

1938 J. Agate Ego 3 (25 Jan.) 275: Pavia was in great form
today: "Every good deed brings its own punishment."

A few different sources attribute it to a variety of famous
people, with no evidence.

I'll let someone else check the databases.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED