“People … become so preoccupied with the means by which an end is achieved, as eventually to mistake it for the end.”

— Herbert Spencer

Ethics (New York:1915), § 14, pp. 38-39
The Principles of Ethics (1897), Part I: The Data of Ethics
Context: People … become so preoccupied with the means by which an end is achieved, as eventually to mistake it for the end. Just as money, which is a means of satisfying wants, comes to be regarded by a miser as the sole thing to be worked for, leaving the wants unsatisfied; so the conduct men have found preferable because most conducive to happiness, has come to be thought of as intrinsically preferable: not only to be made a proximate end (which it should be), but to be made an ultimate end, to the exclusion of the true ultimate end.

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Do you have more details about the quote "People … become so preoccupied with the means by which an end is achieved, as eventually to mistake it for the end." by Herbert Spencer?

Herbert Spencer 81

English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent … 1820–1903

Muhammad Asad (1900–1992) Austro-Hungarian writer and academic

Source: This Law of Ours and Other Essays (1987), Chapter: Calling All Muslims, Radio Broadcast #1, p 92

“The people in Israel are preoccupied, seeing how in other countries people live normal and peaceful lives. This reinforces the desire to end the conflict.”

Jonathan Kis-Lev (1985) painter

Teichert, Corina. From Attempts to Crossing Borders (Vom Versuch, Grenzen zu überschreiten) http://www.j-zeit.de/archiv/artikel.1282.html, Jüdische Zeitung, 2008-07-28

“Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Life of Christ

“Treat people as an end, and never as a means to an end”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

“History is facts which become lies in the end; legends are lies which become history in the end.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

As quoted in The Observer (22 September 1957)
Context: What is history after all? History is facts which become lies in the end; legends are lies which become history in the end.