What does "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions" mean?

[sillypumpkins]

Example:

Someone close to me is suffering. They express how much of a difficult time they are having on this planet.

One might think, “oh I know what will help, let’s remind them that they are the master of their own experience, that they have a choice in all of this! That will surely help, because I know this as the truth, and how can anyone deny this? It can only help!!”

Now imagine you say this to your suffering friend.

Your intentions might ‘appear’ to be good, yes! I mean you only want to help, right? How can that be anything but ‘good’?

You might find in doing this..... you’ve only pushed your friend away and further isolated your self from them, and them from you.

Your intentions were good, but were you really listening?

Of course this is a vague example. I’ve come to understand this quote by being that person (the one who is not listening). Someone close to me was hurting, and while I intended to do good by reminding them of these things, it only made that person feel invalidated and not heard.

I concur with SF and zed that this saying touches on the importance of balancing love power and wisdom.