Martha Gellhorn Quotes

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

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 never justifies the means because there is no end; there are only means.

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

The ends do not always justify the means

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

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

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

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

The end must justify the means.

If the ends don't justify the means, what does?

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.

Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.

I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desireable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain, these means must not be employed.

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.

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.

If you're going to figure something out, study ethics. You can ask What's the answer? What's Right and Wrong? What I learned is that nobody knows the answer and there is no Right and Wrong. So I'm incapable of becoming a fundamentalist because there are no absolutes, there's always a what if.

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

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

Whoever places greater emphasis upon the product rather than the process, upon an all-sanctifying end rather than upon the means for achieving it, is opening the doors of anarchy

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 whole history of man is continuous proof of the maxim that to divest one's methods of ethical concepts means to sink into the depths of utter demoralization.