“This is not an end, but only a means to an end.”
No Compromise – No Political Trading (1899)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Wilhelm Liebknecht 53
German socialist politician 1826–1900Related quotes
“In art, truth is a means to an end; in science, it is the only end.”
Aphorism 25.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)
“A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified”
Source: Their Morals and Ours (1938)
Context: A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified, From the Marxist point of view, which expresses the historical interests of the proletariat, the end is justified if it leads to increasing the power of man over nature and to the abolition of the power of man over man.
“Happiness is not an end — it is only a means, and adjunct, a consequence.”
Source: A Woman's Thoughts About Women (1858), Ch. 10
Context: Happiness is not an end — it is only a means, and adjunct, a consequence. The Omnipotent Himself could never be supposed by any, save those who out of their own human selfishness construct the attributes of Divinity, to be absorbed throughout eternity in the contemplation of His own ineffable bliss, were it not identical with His ineffable goodness and love.
“Womanliness means only motherhood;
All love begins and ends there.”
The Inn Album (1875).
“Reading is not an end to itself, but a means to an end.”
Source: Mein Kampf
“Treat people as an end, and never as a means to an end”
“Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.”
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.
“Learning isn’t a means to an end; it is an end in itself.”
Source: Time for the Stars (1956), Chapter 7, “19,900 Ways” (p. 70)