[Ads-l] cut the mustard

[Laurence Horn]

On Dec 5, 2014, at 12:32 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 3:52 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>> 
>> The anti-proverb "no good deed is unpunished" is a subversion of the
>> proverb "no good deed is unrewarded". The punishment or reward is
>> allotted to the principal actor by providence, karma, or the hand of
>> God.
>> 
>> Barry Popik has an entry for "No good deed goes unpunished (in
>> Washington)" with key citations in 1938 and 1942. YBQ also has an
>> entry.
>> 
> 
> Ha! I had no idea that this "old saw" was so recent!
> 
> And, IMO, it's *far* more likely to be true in fact than the unreasonable
> assertion that
> 
> "no good deed is unrewarded."

Well, there's "virtue is its own reward".

(It usually has to be.)

LH
> 
> I've never heard that before now. Probably because it's nonsense. :-(
> -- 
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org