what goes around
Actions have consequences
What goes around is shorthand for the proverb "what goes around comes around"—the idea that your actions eventually return to affect you, especially negatively.
It often carries a note of satisfaction when someone faces consequences for past behavior: She finally got fired. What goes around.
The phrase implies karmic justice or inevitable retribution.
- karmaSpiritual cause and effect
- cosmic justiceUniverse enforcing moral balance
- law of attractionPositive thinking yields outcomes
- golden ruleFundamental operating principle
- tit for tatEquivalent retaliation
circle · cycle · vicious cycle · return · boomerang · revenge · payback · justice · spin · rotate · revolve · reap · sow · consequence · fate · wheel · orbit · loop
- proverbsproverbs, sayings, maxims, adages, aphorisms
- life wisdomcarpe diem, seize the day, live and learn, this too shall pass, know thyself
- karmacomeuppance, good deeds, poetic justice, karmic debt, karmic cycle
- retributionretribution, revenge, payback, vengeance, retaliation
- Schadenfreudeserves you right, boo hoo, world's smallest violin, cry me a river, just desserts
- consequencesconsequence, consequences, result, results, effect
what goes aroundno good deed goes unpunished
Benevolence often brings misfortune
nice guys finish last · getting away with it · impunity · unaccountable · scot-free
what goes aroundone and done
Single unrepeated occurrence
finality · linear progression · no return · irreversibility · one-way street
what goes aroundimpunity
Freedom from consequences
above the law · untouchable · too big to fail · beyond reproach · nihilism
what, goes, goer, around, round, rounds, rounded, rounding, rounder