If You Do Something Good to Others, Do You Expect Something in Return?

There is a quote by Benjamin Franklin that goes…

“He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged.”

Another way of putting it is, “Do not expect good from someone to whom you have done good.”

However, we secretly expect good outcomes, as if we made a payment and now we want it in return. That we do good to another person, and expect that they also do good to us, is not wrong. It is, however, ignoble. It is part and parcel of our sordid egoistic nature, the desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone.

But the more we do good to others, the more contagious it becomes, and we can then perform more and more good deeds. In other words, we can form a habit of doing good deeds that gradually develops into a need to do so. We can thus develop goodness like a muscle, simply by exercising it, and it is a worthy endeavor.

But what does “good” mean? What does it mean to do good to another person? Here, we need to first find out what is good for the other person, to get to know them and to put ourselves into their shoes. Our good deeds would then suit the person who we do them to in a precise manner.