# What does ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ mean?

To “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” means to good intentions alone don't produce good outcomes. Brewer's records this as an old European proverb, echoed in Samuel Johnson's writings and traceable back through medieval Latin.

## What it means

- Brewer's records this as an old European proverb, echoed in Samuel Johnson's writings and traceable back through medieval Latin.

## Action steps

1. Common in political and personal criticism.
2. Example: The subsidy backfired — the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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