damned Idiom
damned if you do and damned if you don't
you are blamed if you do it and blamed if you do not, between the devil..., can't have it both ways "If you offer to help, he refuses; if you don't offer, he complains. You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
damned if one does, damned if one doesn't|damn
adj. phr. No matter what one does, someone is likely to criticize one.
No matter what decisions I make, there are always some people who will approve them and those who won't. It is a classical case of "damned if I do, damned if I don't."
damned
damned 1.
do one's damnedest (or damndest) Informal to do or try one's utmost
2.
the damned Theol. souls doomed to eternal punishment
damned if I do, damned if I don't
damned if I do, damned if I don't A situation in which one can't win. For example,
If I invite Aunt Jane, Mother will be angry, and if I don't, I lose Jane's friendship—I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. Eric Partridge suggested this idiom may have come from the emphatic
I'm damned if I do, meaning “I definitely will not do something,” but despite the similar wording the quite different meaning argues against this theory. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s] Also see
Catch-22.