Does the end justify the means? That is possible. But what will justify the end? To that question, which historical thought leaves pending, rebellion replies: the means. — Albert Camus
And don't tell me the end justifies the means because it doesn't. We never reach the end. All we ever get is means. That's what we live with. — Nick Harkaway
But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end. — Aldous Huxley
Politics can be relatively fair in the breathing spaces of history; at its critical turning points there is no other rule possible than the old one, that the end justifies the means. — Arthur Koestler
Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other. — Lord Acton
Fear has two meanings - Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. The choice is yours.
If it's anything that's going to result in suffering to animals or people, then I don't think [the end] justifies the means... Yeah; but then again if you could hurt ten people to save 100 people and there was no option, what would you do? I can't really address that. — Ingrid Newkirk
I think in general the ends do not justify the means. — Howard Dean
Do ask yourself why you, the individual, exist, and if you can get no other answer try for once to justify the meaning of your existence as it were a posteriori by setting before yourself an aim, a goal, a 'to this end', an exalted and noble 'to this end'. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Machiavelli Quotes
Systematic tools for getting results, whether in business or international diplomacy, summed up in Beyond Machiavelli and Getting It DONE. — William Ury
Prime ministers require the hide of a rhinoceros, the morals of St. Francis, the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the leadership of Napoleon, the magnetism of a Beatle and the subtlety of Machiavelli. — Lester B. Pearson
As in Machiavelli, the bearing of arms is the essential medium through which the individual asserts both his social power and his participation in politics as a responsible moral being; but the possession of land in nondependent tenure is now the material basis for bearing of arms. — J. G. A. Pocock
You have the power to say - This is not how my story will end.
In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli. — Howard Zinn
Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I’m meaningless. — Lee Kuan Yew
What this White House really needs is a chief of staff who can read Machiavelli in the original Italian. — Mack McLarty
Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip top if you must, but take the step.
The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away. — Saul Alinsky
I have never been over concerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader. Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I'm meaningless. — Lee Kuan Yew
Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith. — Lord Acton
Stupidity trumps Machiavelli almost every time when you are looking for an explanation. — Robert Foster Bennett
Justify The Means Quotes
I mean, we've had all these awful pictures from the prison in Iraq and these sort of memos floating around about justifying torture, all this kind of stuff. And it makes you want to take a shower, you know? — Ron Reagan
To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution. — Louis D. Brandeis
The viciousness, the lack of rules, is so absolute within the leftist framework that the ends justify the means, that my media is very much organized to try and go toe-to-toe with those people to say we know what your motivations are, we know how vicious you are, but we are not afraid of you. — Andrew Breitbart
New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.
Secession, like any other REVOLUTIONARY ACT, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of terms. — Andrew Jackson
Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law. — Louis D. Brandeis
The end does not justify the means. No one's rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others. — Ayn Rand
One bad chapter does not mean your story is over.
Writing, like drawing is an art, and whatever conveys the meaning is justified. — Maxwell Perkins
The line, often adopted by strong men in controversy, of justifying the means by the end. — St. Jerome
Atheistic evolutionists believe that nothing created everything - a scientific impossibility. It couldn't happen. So they redefine the word 'nothing' to mean 'something,' so that in their unthinking minds, they can justify their foolishness. — Ray Comfort
The principle that the end justifies the means is in individualist ethics regarded as the denial of all morals. In collectivist ethics it becomes necessarily the supreme rule. — Friedrich August von Hayek
Means To An End Quotes
If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end. — Bayard Rustin
On the question of relating to our fellowman - our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love. — Edith Stein
First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. — Aristotle
You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic. If words control your that means everyone can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.
I try to look at this music career thing as the means to an end. And really, at the end of it, I see myself on a sailboat, sailing off the edge of the world. — Michelle Shocked
Language has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end of understanding who you are and what society is like. — David Crystal
I've never fallen in love right off the bat. I get scared to say I love you too soon because it means so much. It means you're not seeing an end to things. — Leighton Meester
Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.
As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men, the anguish in our neighbor's soul must break all precept. All that we do is a means to an end, but love is an end in itself, because God is love. — Edith Stein
The largest problem of all is really a network of people like George Soros, who are committed Marxists, who see the destruction of the United States and of Western Europe as a means to an end of creating what United States think will be this global society and the planet. — Douglas Macgregor
Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Give yourself the freedom to explore the possibility of life without limits. Goals are dreams with deadlines, a means to an end but not the ultimate purpose of life. — Glynis Nunn
Nothing seems real anymore. Even the flames from the fire seem to beckon to me, drawing me into some great past life buried somewhere deep in my subconscious, if only I could find the key..if only..if only. Ever since my illness, my condition, I've been trying to find some logical way of passing my time, of justifying a means to an end. — Ian Curtis
The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional do-gooders, who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others - with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means. — Henry Grady Weaver
While we see the Course of the final abolition of human Slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who Chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a Single day. — Robert E. Lee
Strength, the American way, is not manifested by threats of criminal prosecution or police state methods.
Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods. — Margaret Chase Smith
The end justifies the means only when the means used are such as actually bring about the desired and desirable end. — John Dewey
There are times when the end justifies the means. But when you build an argument based on a whole series of such times, you may find that you've constructed an entire philosophy of evil." --Luke Skywalker — Aaron Allston
The principle that the end justifies the means is and remains the only rule of political ethics; anything else is just a vague chatter and melts away between one’s fingers. — Arthur Koestler
Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means. — Charles Dickens
I never compared Nazis into communism, but communism was the same thing, the end justifies the means. Whatever the means. — Elie Wiesel
Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they can get away with it. For them the ends always seems to justify the means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the gulag. — Margaret Thatcher
You think the end justifies the means, however vile. I tell you: the end is the means by which you achieve it. Today's step is tomorrow's life. Great ends cannot be attained by base means. You've proved that in all your social upheavals. The meanness and inhumanity of the means make you mean and inhuman and make the end unattainable. — Wilhelm Reich
The preceding criticism justifies the following definition of the entire human: human existence as the life of "unmotivated" celebration, celebration in all meaning of the word: laughter, dancing, orgy, the rejection of subordination, and sacrifice that scornfully puts aside any consideration of ends, property, and morality. — Georges Bataille
Stem cells are probably going to be extremely useful. But it isn't a given, and even if it were, I don't think the end justifies the means. I am not against stem cells, I think it's great. Blanket objection is not very reasonable to me-any effort to control scientific advances is doomed to fail. You cannot stop the human mind from working. — Joseph Murray
Your policy should be a mixture between your interests and how you reach your ends, but based on values. It cannot be only the end justifies the means, because for the criminals, ends justify the means, for thieves, for every illegal and immoral action, the end justifies the means. — Bashar al-Assad
The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means. — Saul Alinsky
Life's not black-and-white. Sometimes the ends justifies the means. — Emily Giffin
Too soon we breast the tape and too late we realize the fun lay in the running. We deny that the end justifies the means without ever stopping to consider that for practical purposes the End and the Means are one and the same thing. If there is to be any satisfaction in life it must come in transit, for who can tell when he will be struck down in mid-method? — Walt Kelly
When the highest value in a community is loyalty to the greater cause, meaning the continuity of the status quo, all means to this end are imbued with religious significance, and are thereby justified. — Pearl Abraham
One must consider the final result — Niccolo Machiavelli
Narrative Collapse is what happens when we no longer have time in which to tell a story. Remote controls and DVRs give us the ability to break down narratives - particularly the more abusive ones. This is a great thing for escaping the 'ends-justify-the-means' traps of 20th-century wars and religions, but it can also make it hard to convey values. — Douglas Rushkoff
If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means 'to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal' would bring terrible retribution. — Louis D. Brandeis
The ends must justify the means. — Matthew Prior
The end never really justifies the meanness. — E. Duane Hulse
Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods. — Margaret Chase Smith
The end does not justify the means. If we try to be someone we are not in order to achieve a result, then the result cannot help but be something other than what we intended. — Marianne Williamson
Left-wing social policies sicken our behavior and corrupt our culture. People bend principles and sacrifice integrity to get as much as they can from the government. Giveaway programs encourage every imaginable sort of cheating and dishonesty. Wheeling and dealing in food stamps is a way of life. Lying and fraud are commonplace. Whenever you're dependent on the money, the end justifies the means. — James Cook
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