as you sow so shall you reap

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the consequences of one's actions will eventually return to affect one, as a farmer who plants good seed will harvest good grain and one who plants weeds will harvest weeds; one of the most ancient and cross-cultural moral principles, found in various forms in the Bible — Galatians 6:7, 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap' — the Bhagavad Gita, the teachings of the Buddha, and the oral traditions of numerous agricultural societies; the agricultural metaphor emphasises both the inevitability of consequence and the time delay between action and result — the harvest comes at its own season, not immediately — which counsels both ethical behaviour and patience in awaiting the fruits of one's actions, whether good or ill