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• The road to hell is paved with good intentions
  The road to hell is paved with good intentions

  Merely intending to do good, without actually doing it, is of no value.
• road to hell is paved with good intentions, the
  road to hell is paved with good intentions, the

  Well-intended acts can have disastrous results, as in She tried to help by defending Dad's position and they haven't spoken since—the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This proverbial idiom probably derives from a similar statement by St. Bernard of Clairvaux about 1150, L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs (“Hell is full of good intentions or wishes”), and has been repeated ever since. [Late 1500s]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Cultural  

1. Merely intending to do good, without actually doing it, is of no value.

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road to hell is paved with good intentions, the Idioms  

1. Well-intended acts can have disastrous results, as in She tried to help by defending Dad's position and they haven't spoken since—the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This proverbial idiom probably derives from a similar statement by St. Bernard of Clairvaux about 1150, L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs (“Hell is full of good intentions or wishes”), and has been repeated ever since. [Late 1500s]

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Example Sentences

Lawyer Graham Smith, author of a book on internet law, said the act had good aims, but "if the road to hell is paved with good intentions, this is a motorway".

From BBC • Sep. 19, 2023

But maybe there’s a lesson here: the road to hell is paved with good intentions — and infuriatingly shaped cardstock.

From The Verge • Oct. 1, 2021

"It's said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions," Ho wrote.

From Fox News • Aug. 3, 2021

"Of course, my mom used to say the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

From Seattle Times • Jun. 17, 2011

Autumn Sowing I sometimes think the man who first said that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" must have said it in November.

From Over the Fireside with Silent Friends by King, Richard