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

[Patrick]

My parents always used that saying in order to say that you can't just say you're going to do good, you also have to do it. So "intentions aren't good enough, there must also be action".

Its the actions that actually pave the road to hell. The missing ingredient is understanding what your actions are leading to, so in other words, understanding the results/consequences.

So they should have said, you just can't say your going to do good, but you have to know that it actually is. Then do it.

This reminds me of the giving homeless drugs thread. Your intent on positive action may signify your polarity, but the actual consequences of acting on those intents is what produces karma.

As far as I'm aware, it's the intent that causes the karma. Could be wrong though.

It's not the intent alone. Karma requires the action, BUT the karma resulting from an action is supremely affected by the intent behind the action.

Karma is not a stupid calculation only based on actions. It is an exquisitely precise calculation where your intent has a very heavy weight.