damned if one does, and damned if one doesn't

See also: damned if one does and damned if one doesn't

English

Adjective

damned if one does, and damned if one doesn't (not comparable)

Alternative form of damned if one does and damned if one doesn't.
- 1976, Pauline Glen Winslow, The Brandenburg Hotel, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →LCCN, act 1, section 3, pages 39 and 42:
  ‘The tr-ruth! You think you want the truth? What would you do with it if you got it?’ / He didn’t wait for an answer, but jumped to his feet with surprising agility, strode to the window, and turning his back to them stared out into the branches of the tree. / ‘Damned if I do,’ he growled, ‘and damned if I don’t.’ […] ‘[…] Pritchard wouldn’t stoop to it so they sent you to do the dirty work, is that it? The local Polizei are too delicate, send the SS! I should throw you out,’ he stormed. / Capricorn wondered if he were drunk, and looked at Snow. / ‘Why, I could tell you . . . .’ / Diener stopped, abruptly. The colour receded from his face. As the belligerence left, he looked older and tired. Slowly, he went back to his station at the window. / ‘Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t,’ he said again.
- 1989 December 5, Lisa A. Gray, “SGA President To Face Campus Disciplinary Hearing”, in Lisa A. Gray, editor, BCC Communicator, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Bronx Community College of The City University of New York, page 1, column 2:
  “I’m scared,” Ms. Ortiz told The Communicator. “Every day I keep thinking I have a hearing in two weeks. This situation could affect my entire future. But the charges are already on record. I can’t resign now; I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t, so I have to see this thing through to the end. I know I have not done anything wrong, so I am confident that I will be cleared of any wrongdoing.”
- 2008, Roxanne St. Claire, chapter 6, in Now You Die, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Star Books, →ISBN, page 107:
  “So now I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t,” she continued, leaning back as adrenaline slowly dissipated through her system, leaving her wiped out. “If I find out he’s guilty of murder, how is that protecting the man who just begged me to keep him safe?”