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Is there a natural Japanese phrase for “your heart’s in the right place”?

This phrase is used in situations where you mean well but your actions come
across harsh or misguided.

For example, a strict parent may restrict their child from doing things like
staying out late at night, drinking, etc. While they are strict they do these
things because they love their child. In other words, their heart's in the
right place.

Thanks.
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2018-11-04T07:57:22.333
62628
2018-11-07T02:13:04.897
2018-11-07T01:09:02.757
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question
phrase-requests
Is there a natural Japanese phrase for “your heart’s in the right place”?
I want to echo Aeon Akechi's comment that your example usage of "heart is in
the right place" seems a little strange to me. I've seen it most commonly used
in cases where the action produces a result out of line with the good
intentions; maybe somebody beats up their sister's boyfriend because they
think he treats her poorly. That obviously doesn't improve the situation, but
perhaps their heart was in the right place. Staying out late and drinking is
(presumably?) bad for children.

That said, I think I can help with your question. In English, I see two main
usages for the phrase `one's heart being in the right place`. The first is the
one you describe

> This phrase is used in situations where you mean well but your actions come
> across harsh or misguided.

Although I primarily see this in past tense, for something like `he did X, but
his heart was in the right place`. The closest thing I can think of in
Japanese is
[良かれと思う](https://jisho.org/search/%E8%89%AF%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A8%E6%80%9D%E3%81%86)
(more commonly as `良かれと思って`). See also
[here](https://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/content/%E3%82%88%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A8%E6%80%9D%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6)
and
[here](https://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E5%96%84%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A8%E6%80%9D%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6&ref=wl).
This is typically translated as doing something `with good intentions` or
`meaning well`, but that's what `heart in the right place` means when applied
to a specific action.

The other usage is to describe people in the general sense, referring to a
pattern of poor action despite good intentions (somebody to whom the above
case applies regularly). This is the translation you mostly find in
dictionaries, like
[here](https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/have+one%27s+heart+in+the+right+place)
and
[here](https://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=heart%20is%20in%20the%20right%20place).
Something like `心が優しい` is more a statement about the person than their
motivations at any specific time, but so is `his heart is in the right place`
in

> My friend often gets in fights, but his heart is in the right place.

I can think of no perfectly corresponding idiomatic phrase that covers all
uses of English's usages for `one's heart being in the right place`.
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2018-11-07T02:13:04.897
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2018-11-07T02:13:04.897
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answer