Ends Justify The Means quotes:

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The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means. -- Georges Bernanos
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
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 ends justifies the means -- Niccolo Machiavelli
Life's not black-and-white. Sometimes the ends justifies the means. -- Emily Giffin
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means. -- Ursula K. Le Guin
I never compared Nazis into communism, but communism was the same thing, the end justifies the means. Whatever the means. -- Elie Wiesel
Does the end justify the means? Or should it be, Do the ends justify the mean; do the extremes justify moderation? -- Daniel N. Robinson
The end justifies the means only when the means used are such as actually bring about the desired and desirable end. -- John Dewey
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 Hayek
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering, has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit: the assertion of dogma that closes the mind, and turns a nation, a civilization, into a regiment of ghosts--obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts. -- Jacob Bronowski
There is an international disease which feeds on the notion that if you have a cause to defend, you can use any means to further your cause, since the end justifies the means. As an international community, we must oppose this notion, whether it be in Canada, in the United States, or anywhere else. No cause justifies violence as long as the system provides for change by peaceful means. -- Richard M. Nixon
The ends must justify the means. -- Matthew Prior
the ends never justify the means because IT never ends. -- Martha Gellhorn
If the end does not justify the means - what can? -- Edward Abbey
The end doesn't justify anything, because all we ever live with is the means. -- Nick Harkaway
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end. -- Leon Trotsky
Evil is not likely to result where people firmly believe that ends do not justify the means. -- Roy Baumeister
I believe that it is an unchanging value of democracy that ends cannot justify the means in politics. -- Park Geun-hye
I understand that the end does not justify the means. And this should be a lasting value for democracy. -- Park Geun-hye
A Warrior knows that the ends do not justify the means. Because there are no ends, there are only means... -- Paulo Coelho
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
But the nature of the universe is such that the ends never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end. -- Aldous Huxley
We live in a world where everyone thinks they do the right thing, so they are entitled to do the wrong thing. So ends can justify the means. -- Alex Gibney
People who lie, particularly those who lie really big, can't do it effectively unless they feel that there's a righteous power behind what they're doing. You're entitled to lie because the end justifies the means. -- Alex Gibney
When we go to war, our politicians will be guided by our popular will. And if we believe that torture 'got' bin Laden, then we will be more prone to accept the view that a good 'end' can justify brutal 'means.' -- Alex Gibney
The old way of doing 'good business' was based on the principle, 'the ends justifies the means.' In the future, good business will invoke 'the means justifying the ends.' The E P&L can already serve as an important tool to help this shift in commerce from generating profits with collateral damages to profits with collateral benefits. -- Jochen Zeitz
For me, the perfect romantic suspense hero has got to be tough on the outside but tender at his core. A take-charge kind of guy who has his own inner strength and a strong sense of right and wrong - which might not dovetail with the conventional wisdom. I mean, he might bend the law if he thinks the ends justify the means. -- Ruth Glick
The ends do not justify the means -- Seth
If the ends don't justify the means, then what does? -- Robert Moses
I think in general the ends do not justify the means. -- Howard Dean
Only he without sin can tell me if my means justify my ends. -- Jay-Z
Even for the world's only superpower, the ends don't always justify the means. -- Jimmy Carter
The ends justify the means mindset has been the impetus behind many a cruel medical or social experiment. -- James Morcan
Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble. -- Alan Perlis

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