Best Intentions Quotes:

The gifts we are given in life require the best of us, not merely our best intentions.

- Les Brown

source: Les Brown (1998). “It's Not Over Until You Win: How to Become the Person You Always Wanted to Be No Matter What the Obstacle”, p.63, Simon and Schuster

topic: Intention, Given, Best Intentions

You can have the best intentions in the world but if you do nothing, you are nothing.

- Corey Taylor

source: Corey Taylor (2012). “Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good”, p.99, Da Capo Press

topic: World, Intention, Best Intentions

Life has a way of disregarding even your best intentions.

- Sarah Dessen

topic: Way, Intention, Best Intentions

Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.

- Maya Angelou

topic: Heart, Thoughtful, Loving Life, Thoughts On Life, Best Intentions

It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.

- Oscar Wilde

source: Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.810, GENERAL PRESS

topic: Life, Work, Government, Best Intentions

Hell isn't merely paved with good intentions; it's walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too.

- Aldous Huxley

source: Aldous Huxley (1953). “The collected works of Aldous Huxley”

topic: Good Intentions, Hell, Intention, Best Intentions

The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.

- Albert Camus

topic: Life, Hate, War, Malevolence, Lack Of Understanding

The Second Rule is that the greatest harm can result from the best intentions. It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough.

- Terry Goodkind

topic: Kindness, Understanding, Sound, Forethought, Knowledge Wisdom

We are not our best intentions. We are what we do.

- Amy Dickinson

topic: Intention, Best Intentions

Someone can have the best intentions,' Markov said, 'but offering the wrong advice, the wrong help at the wrong time, can be worse than not helping at all.

- Tonya Hurley

topic: Offering, Advice, Helping, Best Intentions

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.

- Margaret Thatcher

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Life, Samaritans, Iron Lady

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

- Peter Drucker

topic: Work, Future, Entrepreneur, Inspirational Hard Work, Strategic Leadership

I like the idea of something greater than us. We destroy things with our curiosity. We shatter with our best intentions. We are no closer to perfection than we were one hundred years ago, or five hundred.

- Lauren DeStefano

topic: Years, Ideas, Perfection, Best Intentions

Even the best intentions turn around one day... Nobody's right all the time.

- Stevie Nicks

topic: One Day, Intention, Turns, Best Intentions

We judge our own character by our best intentions and most noble acts, but we will be judged by our last worst act.

- Michael Josephson

topic: Character, Judging, Noble, Best Intentions

Words are easy to say, but emotions betray the best intentions.

- Sherrilyn Kenyon

source: Sherrilyn Kenyon (2013). “Styxx”, p.645, Macmillan

topic: Emotion, Easy, Intention, Best Intentions

This is the patent age of new inventions for killing bodies, and for saving souls. All propagated with the best intentions.

- Lord Byron

topic: Birthday, Soul, Age, Inventions And Inventors, Discovery And Invention

So many financial dreams are thwarted by the failure to act upon good intentions.

- Suze Orman

topic: Dream, Financial, Good Intentions, Failure To Act, Best Intentions

When things go wrong or dont turn out the way you pictured them in your head, you just have to go with the best intentions defense. I have a lot of good intentions.

- Blake Shelton

topic: Defense, Way, Good Intentions, When Things Go Wrong, Best Intentions

Where the sky begins, the horizon ends, despite the best intentions.

- Tom Petty

source: Song: All The Wrong Reasons

topic: Sky, Horizon, Intention, Best Intentions

Far too many people make promises they can never keep. They may have the best intentions in the world to keep their promise-but if they have not made a plan to keep it, they will not be able to do it.

- Zig Ziglar

source: Zig Ziglar, Tom Ziglar (2012). “Born to Win: Find Your Success Code”, p.138, AudioInk

topic: People, Promise, World, Best Intentions

Lying is the misuse of language. We know that. We need to remember that it works the other way round too. Even with the best intentions, language misused, language used stupidly, carelessly, brutally, language used wrongly, breeds lies, half-truths, confusion. In that sense you can say that grammar is morality. And it is in that sense that I say a writer's first duty is to use language well.

- Ursula K. Le Guin

topic: Lying, Confusion, Needs, Best Intentions

Wizard's Second Rule The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.

- Terry Goodkind

source: Terry Goodkind (2017). “Death's Mistress: Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles”, p.381, Macmillan

topic: Wizards, Intention, Results, Best Intentions

As the elephant is powerless to think in the terms of the ant, in spite of the best intentions in the world, even so is the Englishman powerless to think in the terms of, or legislate for, the Indian.

- Mahatma Gandhi

source: Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.109, Courier Corporation

topic: Thinking, Elephants, World, Best Intentions

We destroy things with our curiosity. We shatter with our best intentions

- Lauren DeStefano

topic: Curiosity, Intention, Best Intentions

What we can and should change is ourselves: our impatience, our egoism (including intellectual egoism), our sense of injury, our lack of love and forbearance. I regard every other attempt to change the world, even if it springs from the best intentions, as futile.

- Hermann Hesse

topic: Spring, Intellectual, World, Forbearance, Lack Of Love

To undertake the direction of the economic life of people with widely divergent ideals and values is to assume responsibilities which commit one to the use of force; it is to assume a position where the best intentions cannot prevent one from being forced to act in a way which to some of those affected must appear highly immoral. This is true even if we assume the dominant power to be as idealistic and unselfish as we can possibly conceive. But how small is the likelihood that it will be unselfish, and how great are the temptations!

- Friedrich August von Hayek

source: "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 15 : The Prospects of International Order, 1940 - 1943.

topic: Responsibility, People, Temptation, Affected, Best Intentions

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

- Barack Obama

topic: Inspiring, Country, Mistake, Equality For All, We All Make Mistakes

This is the patent-age of new inventions For killing bodies, and for saving souls, All propagated with the best intentions; Sir Humphrey Davy's lantern, by which coals Are safely mined for in the mode he mentions, Tombuctoo travels, voyages to the Poles, Are ways to benefit mankind, as true, Perhaps, as shooting them at Waterloo.

- Lord Byron

topic: Science, Soul, Age, Waterloo, Lanterns

A parent's best intentions are no substitute for attention.

- Wes Fesler

topic: Parent, Attention, Intention, Best Intentions

The premise of 'Deadline' forced me to go against my own grain with a character determined to find all that is valuable in that time. I believe this is a story about redemption; how, even with the best intentions, it's sometimes found and sometimes not.

- Chris Crutcher

source: Megan McCafferty (2010). “The Complete Jessica Darling Series: Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, Charmed Thirds, Fourth Comings, Perfect Fifths”, p.458, Crown

topic: Believe, Character, Redemption, Best Intentions

I know there are a lot of people out there who have the best intentions but not the voice, so it's about people like me to give them a voice and hear their ideas.

- Carl Lewis

topic: Ideas, Voice, People, Best Intentions

Your closest relationships are often the ones that have the most effect on you, but they are frequently the ones most difficult to change. These relationships are complex and have long histories. Lifetime habits of avoiding being really present with each other may exist in many of them. Family members, for instance, might want to support you, but will not necessarily know how to genuinely listen or be present with you in a way that is enlivening. . . . Even with the best intentions, it can be very difficult to get beyond the past and into the Now.

- Richard Moss

topic: Relationship, Past, Long, Best Intentions

We are not, however, a species that can choose the baggage with which we must travel. In spite of our best intentions, we always find that we have brought along a suitcase or two of darkness and despair.

- Dean Koontz

topic: Two, Darkness, Despair, Best Intentions

There are a lot of movies I'd like to throw away. That's not to say that I went in with that attitude. Any film I ever started, I went in with all the hope and best intentions in the world, but some films just don't work.

- Kiefer Sutherland

topic: Attitude, World, Film, Best Intentions

People with the best intentions will often give you advice on why you shouldn’t take a risk because of what could happen. While some of what they say may be true, you should never allow them to get their negative anchors into your mind because, like them, you too will begin to sink. Next time this happens, throw them a life-line, and ask them what is good about their situation.

- Bob Proctor

source: FaceBook post by Bob Proctor from Apr 17, 2013

topic: Anchors, People, Giving, Life Line, Best Intentions

Just draw 'cause you love it, you know, I think that's why you should be doing it. You should always be doing art for the right reasons, um, and with the best intentions. Anything at all is completely possible and I think that's what I like about drawing. I think it's just really fun. You can do anything you want. And that's part of, like, what's really enjoyable about it... is kind of losing yourself in it.

- Gerard Way

topic: Art, Fun, Thinking, Best Intentions

We run around so much - with the best intentions: I want to save the rain forest. I've gotta clean up the oceans. I've gotta save the dolphins. All worthy efforts, but if you're not centered and you don't have the serenity in your life you need to accomplish that task, you're not going to do a very good job.

- Ed Begley, Jr.

topic: Running, Jobs, Ocean, Best Intentions

The intention to live as long as possible isn't one of the mind's best intentions, because quantity isn't the same as quality.

- Deepak Chopra

source: "The Real Secret to Staying Healthy for Life (Part 3)" by Deepak Chopra, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 15, 2012.

topic: Quality Not Quantity, Long, Mind, Best Intentions

The best intentions (of respect and tolerance) can often be annoying to those whose cultures are not in dominance: we feel that we are often zoological specimens.

- Vijay Prashad

source: Vijay Prashad (2001). “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity”

topic: Tolerance, Dominance, Culture, Best Intentions

In the end, a small section of the crowd, maybe 2,000 to 3,000, turned against me. And that was it. Inside the club they know your best intentions, but the minority shout louder than the rest.

- Bryan Robson

topic: Technology, Minorities, Crowds, Best Intentions

Why do I think that we, the intellectuals, are able to help? Simply because we, the intellectuals, have done the most terrible harm for thousands of years. Mass murder in the name of an idea, a doctrine, a theory, a religion - that is all "our" doing, "our" invention: the invention of the intellectuals. If only we would stop setting man against man - often with the best intentions - much would be gained. Nobody can say that it is impossible for us to stop doing this.

- Karl Popper

topic: Men, Thinking, Years, Best Intentions

If people with the very best intentions carry on prosecutions that are oppressive, the end may not always perhaps sanctify the means.

- Sherrilyn Kenyon

source: "Williams' Case". 1797.

topic: Mean, People, May, Best Intentions

It was invaluable to have a dear friend who you have known for over a decade, be a partner in a film like Titanic. To have somebody that talented to work against, who's also your friend and who you know you have the best intentions for and vice versa, and who you intrinsically trust to give you their forthright honest opinion about what we're both doing - all that's something you can't really buy.

- Leonardo DiCaprio

topic: Giving, Vices, Who You Know, Best Intentions

Manifesting the blessings is not really anything that is complicated or even difficult. Clear out what is not serving you or no longer actively being utilized. Give and share joyously. Receive graciously. Make amends. Adorn yourself first with inner beauty so the outer beauty may benefit from your best intentions. Contribute more than you take. Make each place you find yourself better than you found it. Be an abundant source of good tidings to and from God. In short, let go and let God.

- John Morton

source: John Morton (2000). “The Blessings Already Are”, p.162, Mandeville Press

topic: Letting Go, Blessing, Giving, Outer Beauty, Let Go And Let God

I had asked her for help, and she had sent me to the lions. I knew that she was trying to save her little girl, but sometimes mothers with the best intentions kill their daughters all the same.

- Laura Whitcomb

source: Laura Whitcomb (2005). “A Certain Slant of Light”, p.254, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Girl, Daughter, Mother, Best Intentions

With the best intentions, the job of acting can become a display of accumulated bad habits, trapped instincts and blocked energies. Working with the Alexander Technique has given me sightings of another way... Mind and body, work and life together. Real imaginative freedom.

- Alan Rickman

topic: Jobs, Real, Mind, Blocked, Best Intentions

There is no way of finding the middle ground, even with the best intentions of the world. Our most sensible policy is to stall.

- Yitzhak Rabin

topic: World, Way, Intention, Best Intentions

Thanksgiving is a holiday that brought together two different cultures. The pilgrims came here with the best intentions. They decided to flee an oppressive people and move to a new land. Where they thrived. And became an oppressive people. You get certain people on the same continent, there's going to be a problem. Pilgrims and Indians. Protestants, Catholics. My family, anybody else's family.

- Christopher Titus

source: "Titus / The Perfect Thanksgiving". www.imdb.com. 2000.

topic: Moving, Holiday, Land, Protestants, Perfect Harmony

I dont think I threw myself into music because I had the best intentions; it was because I was really angry.

- Ariel Pink

topic: Thinking, Intention, Music Is, Best Intentions