do more harm than good

present singular third person does more harm than good · participle present doing more harm than good · past did more harm than good · participle past done more harm than good

1. To make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better.

   What it generalizes to is the proposition that where following a law does more harm than good, it should be broken.

   2012, Leo Katz, Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law

   2 more examples

   Finally, it appears that Pius was asked by some persecuted Jews to avoid an explicit condemnation because it would do more harm than good

   2002, José M. Sánchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy, page 117

   In other words, they will tend to vote for a bill if they think that the public will perceive it as doing more good than harm, even though it might actually do more harm than good. The public can misperceive the real effects of a bill

   2008, David Schoenbrod, Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People through Delegation