road to hell is paved with good intentions

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

proverb Good intentions do not matter if a person's actions lead to bad outcomes. A: "I'm sorry, I was only trying to explain where Tom was coming from! I didn't mean to make matters worse." B: "Yeah, well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
See also: good, hell, intention, pave, road
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

road to hell is paved with good intentions

Prov. People often mean well but do bad things. (Can be a strong rebuke, implying that the person you are addressing did something bad and his or her good intentions do not matter.) Jane: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings; I only wanted to help you. Jane: Oh, yeah? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
See also: good, hell, intention, pave, road
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

People say the road to hell is paved with good intentions to mean that people often intend to do good things but in fact do not, often because they are lazy or weak. She said the road to hell was paved with good intentions, that she really had decided to hand write six dozen personal letters, but she just didn't have the time. Note: Path is sometimes used instead of road. The path to hell is paved with good intentions, and there are many, many pots of vitamin tablets which have been started but never finished. Note: To pave a path or road means to cover it using flat stones called paving stones. The word `pavement' is derived from this word. This expression was used by the writer Samuel Johnson and is mentioned in his biography in an entry dated 16 April 1775, in the form `hell is paved with good intentions'. The idea is that good intentions do not guarantee a good outcome.
See also: good, hell, intention, pave, road
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

the road to ˌhell is paved with good inˈtentions

(saying) it is not enough to intend to do good things, behave better, etc.; you must actually do them, be better, etc.
See also: good, hell, intention, pave, road
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • teach a man to fish
  • village
  • it takes a village
  • require
  • desperate times call for desperate measures
  • desperate times require desperate measures
  • drastic
  • drastic times call for drastic measures
  • drastic times require drastic measures
  • a good example is the best sermon
References in periodicals archive
The president has good intentions but there is a saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The import of this is that good intentions are not enough to effect a positive change.
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions as Ulrika Jonsson has discovered.
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However, the show creator pointed out that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The new king of Kattegat will be tested with the questions and choices that he has never faced before.
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Will learns the hard way that the road to hell is paved with good intentions as his plans have a habit of backfiring and dropping him deeper into trouble.
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As they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
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The Sindh chief minister tried to justify the bill by saying that the intention behind conversion was not mala fide, forgetting that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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The honourable chief minister tried to justify the bill by saying that the intention behind conversion was not mala fide, forgetting that 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'.
Rest in peace, Karachi
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Perhaps elected representatives who favor the Trans-Pacific Partnership have good intentions, but I doubt it - it's more likely that the bobsled to hell is paved with influence peddling.
Help Merkley, DeFazio stop TPP in its tracks
They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So, too, is the racetrack that leads you to your local coffee shop.
Starbucks to deemphasize 'Race Together' campaign
AS the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but why is it that we so often fail to put our intentions into action and what can we do to boost our chances of success?
mind over matter with Dr Ellie Milby; Time to put your good intentions into practice
Time to put your good intentions into practice AS the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but why is it that we so often fail to put our intentions into action and what can we do to boost our chances of success?
mind over matter with Dr
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That's the intent of passage of the law against technical malversation, to tell people like him that one cannot jungle funds, no matter how good the intention," Ejercito said.
Ejercito: Abad treated with kid gloves during DAP hearing
I am reminded of my late mothers comment that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Who will police this law? FEEDBACK
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. None of your proposals in contrary to our thoughts, you can see the exact opposite.
Bulgarian PM Threatens Eco-Protesters with Hooligans
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions and we don't realise what we are giving up when we give the state the power to monitor our private lives," he said.
Now, CCTVs so strong that they can zoom in to read text messages