Your plan fails.
It’s disappointing and maybe even a little surprising.
When asked about why you failed and what you were thinking, you say, “I meant well. I had the best intentions.”
Then the jerkface to whom you are speaking offers this scintillating quip:
“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
Of course, this is a stupid statement, not only because it’s unoriginal, overused, and therefore boring but also because it makes no sense.
The road to Hell may very well be paved with good intentions, but the road to Heaven is also paved with good intentions. In fact, the road to Heaven is only paved with good intentions. Many, many good intentions. Exclusively good intentions.
The road to Hell may be paved with good intentions, but it’s also definitely paved with bad intentions. Mostly bad intentions. Overwhelmingly bad intentions. The ratio of bad to good on the road to Hell is probably a trillion to one.
Right?
The opposite certainly isn’t true. The road to Heaven is never paved with bad intentions. No one ever gets into Heaven by trying to do wrong.
So it would seem that good intentions are a good thing even when things don’t work out. Good intentions should be everyone’s starting point, regardless of how many times they may lead to disaster.
So when someone says, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” what they really should be saying is this:
“The roads to both Hell and Heaven are paved with good intentions—and Heaven’s road is definitely paved with many more good intentions. So it would seem that having good intentions is a good thing no matter the result, so I’ve essentially made no point at all.”
Some aphorisms are stupid and should be avoided at all costs.
This is one of them.
