William Penn Quotes

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.

In the real world in which we live, you always have to choose between evils. And in choosing between evils, you have to have moral criteria for how to make those choices.

Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

We may draw good out of evil; we must not do evil, that good may come.

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

The problem with absolutist beliefs that they can get you into traps in which the ends justify the means.

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

The ends do not justify the means. The means are the ends.

The ends do not always justify the means

Some lines were never meant to be crossed, however good your cause may seem.

In the 17 years since I graduated from this great College of Law, I have seen that, for many of us, it becomes increasingly easy to rationalize our actions in the name of expediency when facing difficult decisions-to choose a path where the ends justify the means. I want to ask you to challenge Machiavelli's philosophy. I want to humbly suggest that you be the guardians of a more complicated truth: that the means are as important-and sometimes even more important-than the ends.

the ends never justify the means because IT never ends.

A Warrior knows that the ends do not justify the means. Because there are no ends, there are only means.

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.

The guiding principle of my life, 'the means are the ends,' has taught me that our participation in a corrupt system facilitates it and corrupts and therefore defeats us.

Cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays.

Ethical metaphysics is fundamentally an attempt, however disguised, to give legislative force to our own wishes.

Men must learn now with pity to dispense; For policy sits above conscience.

One of the most depressing features of the ethical side of the matter is that instead of such methods arousing contempt they are more or less openly admired. And this is logical. Canonise 'business success,' and men who made a success like that of the Standard Oil Trust become national heroes!

Those who are most moral are farthest from the problem.

You have to help another person. But it's not right to play God with masses of people. To be God you have to know what you're doing. And to do any good at all, just believing you're right and your motives are good isn't enough.

Man's sense of Morality tends to decrease as his Power increases

People who have been wronged will attempt to right the wrong; they would not be people if they didn't. They can rarely afford to be scrupulous about the means they will use. They will use such means as come to hand. Neither, in the main, will they distinguish one oppressor from another, nor see through to the root principle of their oppression.

Compassion without wisdom is dangerous. It's what enables people to support the 'underdog,' even if the underdog is evil

I have this theory that there are two kinds of people in the world, people who stop at a traffic accident and those that just drive by. If I see a traffic accident, I am going to stop. I do notice. I don't think that makes me a good or bad person, or anybody else better or worse.