Tuesday

Pay it forward


  • International Pay it Forward Day is 

    Thursday, April 28, 2016

  • Pay it Forward Day UK
  • Pay It Forward Foundation

  • International Pay It Forward Day

    Pay it forward is an expression used when someone who is done a good deed repays it to others not the original benefactor. The concept is old, but the term is quite recent:

    • First use of the term may have been by Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book In the Garden of Delight: "You don't pay love back; you pay it forward."
    • The Pay it forward concept was the key plot element in an ancient Greek play from 317 BC called Dyskolos by Menander.
    • The concept was described by Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Benjamin Webb dated April 25, 1784:
    I do not pretend to give such a deed; I only lend it to you. When you [...] meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro' many hands, before it meets with a Knave that will stop its Progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.
    • The term "pay it forward" was used by Robert A. Heinlein in his book Between Planets, published in 1951
    • In 2000, Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel Pay It Forward was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. It describes creating a social movement of doing good deeds to make the world a better place.

    2 comments:

    1. I love the idea of paying it forward.... I really like the movie they made of it... it was quite sad but he changed so many peoples lives and sadly he never knew... We can all do this in small ways... xox

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      Replies
      1. Hey Launna, I know you are a great believer in paying it forward - you do it everyday by taking time to leave comments on others web sites. Thank you and it inspires me to do something for others too.

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