The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

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The Road to Hell is Paved
With Good Intentions


“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” has taken on many variations throughout the centuries, and is claimed by many authors as their own, but the essence of this English proverb reaches across generations, and yet retains its meaning, to parallel the lives and situations of all who use it today. Perhaps Samuel Johnson was most credited with a modified version of this proverb, when he was quoted in James Boswell’s biography Life of Johnson, as saying “hell is paved with good intentions”, but he was elaborating on the words of others, they were not his own. As early as the 12th century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153 A.D., was quoted saying, “hell is paved with good intentions or desires”, and in Notes Theological, political, and Miscellaneous written by Samuel Taylor-Coleridge, he attributes the saying to Richard Baxter, 1615-1691 A.D. Although this saying has been coined as an English proverb, history traces another version to old Portugal that says, “hell is paved with good intentions, and roofed with lost opportunities.” The saying itself has taken on a life of its own, that has evolved into its most modern transformation, and has even been described by Richard Chenevix Trench in his Lessons in Proverbs, 1851, as “perhaps the Queen of all proverbs.” Although this phrase was born hundreds and hundreds of years ago, today the meaning applies to any number of relevant situations that perpetuate the life of these words for generations to come.

Theological implications aside, the proverb, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, clearly admonishes that good intentions do not guarantee morally acceptable actions. A dramatic illustration of the wisdom of this proverb is perhaps seen best in the issue of assisted suicide. The motivation, or intent, of assisting in the suicide of another who is afflicted with pain, derives f...