The road to hell is paved with good intentions

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

(From one of my favourite lectures of Alan Watts)

Lao Tzu, the Chinese Philosopher said "The highest virtue is not virtuous and that is why it is virtuous".

People throughout history have done great evil in an effort to "make the world a better place". In an attempt to civilise the savages, the Europeans went on colonising the world, inflicting the worst possible tortures on natives. The USA decided to spread democracy in the West Asia and the result was, to put it mildly, disastrous.

In an attempt to create a high yielding variety of plant, we ended up creating a recipe of ecological disaster. To increase lifespan of a human, we inflict immeasurable trauma on the body. Each side in a war thinks it is most righteous, moral and noble.

Every problem we now face can source its origin in "good faith".

A lot of people keep lamenting on the current state of the world, how they wish they had a power to make it "better". These are the exact same thoughts that Hitler had.

The way the birds sing, the flowers bloom, the way mothers take care of their babies across species- you never find them gloating about how noble they are. They simply are!

A person of good intentions looks to change the world.

A person of good character simply looks within.

USAGE (indicative only):

You can use this idea for discussing social media, or even IR- how some countries love virtue signaling :))