Saul Alinsky Quotes

If the end does not justify the means - what can?

If the end does not justify the means, what does?

We ought to see clearly that the end does justify the means

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.

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

The ends do not always justify the means

Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.

The end must justify the means.

You can get away with anything as long as it works.

He uses common sense to judge not the intentions of an action but its consequences.

It's okay to lie as long as you reach a higher truth doing it.

It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.

I'm a Utilitarian, so I don't see the rule against lying as absolute; it's always subject to some overriding utility which may prevent its exercise.

Sometimes the right thing gets done for the wrong reason and sometimes, unfortunately, the wrong thing gets done for the right reason.

I would not hold that we must judge by the favorable or adverse result alone whether an undertaking was just or unjust.

The foundations of morality are like all other foundations: If you dig too much about them, the superstructure will come tumbling down.

One's concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one's personal interest in the issue ... Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.

I never think the ends justify the means.

To say that corrupt means corrupt the ends is to believe in the immaculate conception of ends and principles.

But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

Intention, good or bad, is not enough.

I'm not saying you did the wrong thing. I'm not even saying it wasn't something I'd thought of doing, myself. But even if it was the just thing to do, or the fitting thing, it still wasn't the right thing.

As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.

The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

All moral laws are merely statements that certain kinds of actions will have good effects.