“The idea that the ends of government justify the means employed, was worked into system by Machiavelli.”
The History of Freedom in Christianity (1877)
Context: The idea that the ends of government justify the means employed, was worked into system by Machiavelli. He was an acute politician, sincerely anxious that the obstacles to the intelligent government of Italy should be swept away. It appeared to him that the most vexatious obstacle to intellect is conscience, and that the vigorous use of statecraft necessary for the success of difficult schemes would never be made if governments allowed themselves to be hampered by the precepts of the copy-book.
His audacious doctrine was avowed in the succeeding age, by men whose personal character otherwise stood high. They saw that in critical times good men have seldom strength for their goodness, and yield to those who have grasped the meaning of the maxim that you cannot make an omelette if you are afraid to break the eggs. They saw that public morality differs from private, because no government can turn the other cheek, or can admit that mercy is better than justice. And they could not define the difference, or draw the limits of exception; or tell what other standard for a nation’s acts there is than the judgment which heaven pronounces in this world by success.
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John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton 112
British politician and historian 1834–1902Related quotes
Discourse no. 4; vol. 1, p. 94.
Discourses on Art
“The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.”
Source: Their Morals and Ours
“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.
Friedrich Stadler (1996). "Otto Neurath—encyclopedia and utopia." In: E. Nemeth & F. Stadler (Eds.). Encyclopedia and utopia: The life and work of Otto Neurath (1882–1945), Boston: Kluwer. Stadler, 1996, p. 3
“The end must justify the means.”
Hans Carvel (1700).
“The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.”
Source: The Lathe of Heaven (1971), Chapter 6
Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank (23 February 1791)