The road to hell is paved with good intentions
In the mid-12th century, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, "L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs" (hell is full of good wishes and desires). <ref>Amer, Christine. (1997). [https://books.google.com/books?id=9re1vfFh04sC&pg=PA542 The American Heritage dictionary of idioms, p. 542].</ref>  The sentence has been repeated many times in other languages and contexts.