The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Posted by TheFallen on March 08, 2003

In Reply to: The road to hell is paved with good intentions posted by joan on March 08, 2003

: what is the meaning of this expression? there is disagreement in the household over this and we want an impartial person's ideas. I think the expression means that good intentions are worthless and/or get you nowhere. My husband thinks it means something about good plans always going wrong.Any ideas?

The expression means that good intentions by themselves are futile - it's good actions that count. Or, to put it another way, it's nowhere near enough just to mean well. Lots of people have ended up in deep doo-doo, despite having the best of intentions.

Now I don't want to cause any marital strife here by giving an opinion on who was more right. You can decide that amongst yourselves.