“Those with wholeness of understanding will be primarily motivated towards Watchfulness by their coming to see clearly that only perfection and nothing else is worthy of their desire and that there is no worse evil than the lack of and removal from perfection. For after this has become clear to them, as well as the fact that the means to this end are virtuous deeds and traits, they will certainly never permit themselves to diminish these means; nor will they ever fail to make use of their full potential. For it would already have become clear to them that if these means were reduced in number or not employed with complete effectiveness, with all of the energy that they called for, true perfection would not be attained through them, but would be lacked to the extent that sufficient exertion was lacking in relation to them.”
Mesillat Yesharim (1738), Chapter 4
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Moshe Chaim Luzzatto 13
Italian rabbi 1707–1746Related quotes

“A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.”
537-539
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I
Context: A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God's sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.
Source: Man: The Dwelling Place of God (1992), p. 56-57.

Journal entry (8 July 1916), p. 74e
1910s, Notebooks 1914-1916
Jerry Williams talking about Fidel Castro in an interview in the Swedish paper Proletären, number 48, 1985. Translated from Swedish.

19th World Vegetarian Congress 1967