47 Quotes About Good Intentions Gone Wrong

No matter what your intentions may be from the start, there is always the potential of a mistake to happen. There are other ways to take these intentions and make something great. Here are some great quotes about good intentions gone wrong.

“A benefit consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”

“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.”

“A good intention clothes itself with power.”

“A good intention clothes itself with sudden power. When a god wishes to ride, any chip or pebble will bud and shoot out winged feet, and serve him for a horse.”

“A horrid alcoholic explosion scatters all my good intentions like bits of limbs and clothes over the doorsteps and into the saloon bars of the tawdriest pubs.”

“A man can only be judged by his actions, and not by his good intentions or his beliefs.”

“At every step there is a pretext for enmity against our brother.”

“Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.”

“Do any of us know how we’re actually doing? Whether or not all the hard work and good intentions are paying off?”

“Early in life I learned, just through observation, that right always wins out over wrong. If a person has good intentions in his heart and wants to do the right thing, then there are certain ways that any obstacle can be overcome.”

“Everyone lies to themselves, but many people do it with good intentions. They want to believe what they tell themselves, it is oftentimes the best possible version of reality for them.”

“For so long as we condone injustice by a small but powerful group, we condone the destruction of all social stability, all real peace, all trust in man’s good intentions toward his fellow man.”

“Good governance with good intentions is the hallmark of our government. Implementation with integrity is our core passion.”

“Good intentions are invariably ungrammatical.”

“Good intentions are not enough. They’ve never put an onion in the soup yet.”

“Good intentions are very mortal and perishable things. Like very mellow and choice fruit, they are difficult to keep.”

“Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut.”

“Good intentions will always be pleaded, for every assumption of power; but they cannot justify it … It is hardly too strong to say, that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intention, real or pretended.”

“Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.”

“Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions; it’s walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too.”

“History is a better guide than good intentions.”

“I have a low tolerance for people who complain about things but never do anything to change them. This led me to conclude that the single largest pool of untapped natural resources in this world is human good intentions that are never translated into actions.”

“I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.”

“I think I’ll be going to Heaven, because I had good intentions. But my actions are another thing.”

“I think we’re entering a very dangerous time. The West has set itself up, decided it’s in charge, not for good intentions, not for the benefit of mankind.”

“If our mind is in conflict, not balanced with our body and with the needs of the soul, then there is a fundamental disunity in our life.”

“I’m delirious with joy. It proves that if you confront the universe with good intentions in your heart, it will reflect that and reward your intent. Usually. It just doesn’t always do it in the way you expect.”

“In general, I think the world is a good place if you work hard, believe in yourself, have good intentions, and if you are kind to people, I believe that good things happen to you.”

“It has been more wittily than charitably said that hell is paved with good intentions; they have their place in heaven also.”

“Medicine is intention. Those who are proficient at using intention are good doctors.”

“Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most difficult deception.”

“My hatred is a thousand times more powerful than all your good intentions.”

“No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.”

“Nowhere is wisdom more necessary than in the guidance of charitable impulses. Meaning well is only half our duty; Thinking right is the other, and equally important, half.”

“One cannot use an evil action with reference to a good intention.”

“One lives with so many bad deeds on one’s conscience and some good intentions in one’s heart.”

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”

“So many financial dreams are thwarted by the failure to act upon good intentions.”

“The consciousness of good intention is the greatest solace of misfortunes.”

“The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.”

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”

“The object of most prayers is to wangle an advance on good intentions.”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“The single largest pool of untapped resource in this world is human good intentions that never translate into action.”

“There are people who do what they believe is right, but as they say, ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'”

“We call an intention good which is right in itself, but the action is good, not because it contains within it some good, but because it issues from a good intention.”

“We have a choice every day — to act on yesterday’s good intentions or get an early start on tomorrow’s regrets.”

Sometimes our good intentions can go from bad to worse. Knowing what to do when this happens will help to bring out out of it in the light.