Penn Jillette Quotes

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 end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.

The doing evil to avoid an evil cannot be good.

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

I think in general the ends do not justify the means.

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

The end justifies the means only when the means used are such as actually bring about the desired and desirable end.

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

The end doesn't justify anything, because all we ever live with is the means.

It seems that if you put people on paper and move them through time, you cannot help but talk about ethics, because the ethical realm exists nowhere if not here: in the consequences of human actions as they unfold in time, and the multiple interpretive possibility of those actions.

That's always been my philosophy. - I've never thought of the consequences of a necessary action.

the ends never justify the means because IT never ends.

Morality must be the heart of our existence, if it is to be what it wants to be for us. The highest form of philosophy is ethics. Thus all philosophy begins with "I am." The highest statement of cognition must be an expression of that fact which is the means and ground for all cognition, namely, the goal of the I.

Too great a preoccupation with motives (especially one's own motive) is liable to lead to too little concern for consequences.

You can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.

Moral truth, resting entirely upon the ascertained consequences of actions, supposes a process of observation and reasoning.

Revolting means for good ends make the ends of themselves revolting.

One of them is knowing the difference between Morality and Wisdom. Morality is temporary, Wisdom is permanent… Ho ho. Take that one to bed with you tonight.

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.

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

A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified.

The end must 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.

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