“Democracy is not the end product, but the means to the end, which is the enjoyment of human rights by all.”

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas 2013 Report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order
2013
Variant: Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the sacred promises of human dignity, justice and peace

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Alfred de Zayas 176
American United Nations official 1947

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“Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.”

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As quoted in World Marxist Review : Problems of Peace and Socialism (1958), p. 40
Context: Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself. We talk of the good of society. Is this something apart from, and transcending, the good of the individuals composing it? If the individual is ignored and sacrificed for what is considered the good of the society, is that the right objective to have?
It was agreed that the individual should not be sacrificed and indeed that real social progress will come only when opportunity is given to the individual to develop, provided "the individual" is not a selected group but comprises the whole community. The touchstone, therefore, should be how far any political or social theory enables the individual to rise above his petty self and thus think in terms of the good of all. The law of life should not be competition or acquisitiveness but cooperation, the good of each contributing to the good of all.

Alfred de Zayas photo

“Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the sacred promises of human dignity, justice and peace.”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

Alfred de Zayas' aphorisms http://www.alfreddezayas.com/aphorisms.shtml.

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“Democracy sometimes looks like an end in itself, but in fact it is merely a means to an end.”

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“All beings are ends; no creatures are means. All beings have not equal rights, neither have all men; but all have rights.”

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The Life Process is the End—not man, nor any other animal temporarily privileged to weave a world's philosophy. Non-human beings were not made for human beings any more than human beings were made for non-human beings. Just as the sidereal spheres were once supposed by the childish mind of man to be unsubstantial satellites of the earth, but are known by man's riper understanding to be worlds with missions and materialities of their own, and of such magnitude and number as to render terrestrial insignificance frightful, so the billions that dwell in the seas, fields, and atmospheres of the earth were in like manner imagined by the illiterate children of the race to be the mere trinkets of men, but are now known by all who can interpret the new revelation to be beings with substantially the same origin, the same natures, structures, and occupations, and the same general rights to life and happiness, as we ourselves.
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“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production”

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Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter VIII, p. 719.
Context: Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

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“Economics is a science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.”

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“The capitalist system of production is an economic democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote.”

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“Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.”

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McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
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