do more harm than good

do more harm than good (third-person singular simple present does more harm than good, present participle doing more harm than good, simple past did more harm than good, past participle done more harm than good)

1. To make a situation worse, usually while trying to make it better.
   • 2002, José M. Sánchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy‎^[1], page 117:

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

   • 2008, David Schoenbrod, Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People through Delegation‎^[2]:

     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

   • 2012, Leo Katz, Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law‎^[3]:

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

• “do more harm than good”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.