Play with fire

Posted by ESC on December 02, 2000

In Reply to: You play with fire your gonna get burned! posted by crystal on December 02, 2000

: i'm doing a report for school on a law case in which a child is dying of lung cancer because he/she ignored the law, teachers, and his/her parent's when they told him/her how dangerous smoking was. I need a saying similar to this one that sounds less offensive. PLEASE HELP if you can!!!!!!!

Regardless of how you say it, most people are going to be offended if you say they are responsible for their own misfortune. Especially if you're talking about the actions of a young person. Most of the phrases along these lines are very judgmental. Anyway, here's one that we used to say down on the farm:

THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST -- "One has to face the consequences of one's past actions..." Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).

And then there's the Biblical:

As you sow, so shall you reap. (Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Galatians 6:7,King James Version.)

They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind. (For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. Hos. 8:7, King James Version.)

Or you could say something like, "Knowing this illness could have been prevented is 'a bitter pill to swallow.'"