“it is just as wrong, or even perhaps more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.”

—  Martin Luther King, Jr.

1960s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Variant: I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.
Context: I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. 658
American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

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