The road to hell is paved

by me, apparently. After surviving some personal turmoil, I really got to thinking about the saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

I used to think the word intention in the saying was defined as "purpose". For example, I told Mrs. Doe that I saw Mr. Doe and his buxom secretary, Judy McBooty, entering a motel room laughing and clutching a bottle of Cold Duck and a Whitman's Sampler. My intention or purpose was to advise Mrs. Doe that Mr. Doe has not been honest with her about their married life. Instead, however, Mrs. Doe comes up to me and screams, how dare I stick my nose where it doesn't belong, that Ms. McBooty was a one-time fling that apparently didn't mean anything and now their marriage and home is broken, with everyone thoroughly unhappy, including their innocent children. That's where a keen observer would chide me, muttering under his breath, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That is, though my intention was good, I've done more destruction than enlightenment.

But now I've heard that the word intention in that prolific saying is supposed to be defined as "a course of action one expects oneself to follow". So following the same example, I intended to tell Mrs. Doe about Mr. Doe and his secretary, Ms. McBooty, but I didn't get around to it, I didn't have the stones to do it when I had the time, I wasn't up for it, etc. Eventually, Mrs. Doe comes up to me and says that Mr. Doe has absconded with their life savings and run off with some Ms. McBooty and Mrs. Doe found out she caught Herpes Simplex 10 from her philandering husband. And when I sheepishly confess, yeah, I meant to tell you about that...she will proceed to curse me to blazes. Again, a keen observer character would come out of the woodwork to chide me, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That is, I did no good merely intending to do something and my inaction led to something worse.

So which is it? Frankly between the two, I think it simply comes down to: damned if you do, damned if you don't. There's hell to pay either way.

Or perhaps I'm missing another interpretation?