Who said, "the end never justifies the means"? What does it mean?

Answer 1

The truth is that nobody really knows who said that phrase first.

Niccolo Machiavelli is often quoted as saying the opposite - that the end justifies the means - but he never actually did (he gets mis-quoted a lot). The closest he ever comes is this:

"in the actions of all men...when there is no impartial arbiter, one must consider the final result."

Or in other words that if there is no other way to tell what is a good thing to do, you can at least try and judge by the outcome of events.

The reason we probably don't know who said things like these is that they are really very common ideas. People have been arguing about this kind of thing for just about as long as there have been arguments at all.

What your version of the expression means is that you CAN'T use a desired outcome to say that what you're doing is okay.

For example, we might agree that eliminating AIDS from the world might be a pretty good idea, but that is just the 'end'. If someone decides he's going to get rid of AIDS by murdering every man, woman, and child with the virus so it can't spread... well, most of us would say that was a VERY bad way of doing it (the means)!

In other words, it's not enough just to be trying to do good things... you have to also do them in a good manner!

Answer 2

Nicolo Machiavelli said "The end justifies the means" and that means that whatever measures you have to take to achieve something are worth it, but I'm not sure who added the *never*

Answer 3

My guess is Hannah Arendt most recently and famously said so, although she probably wasn t the first person ever to say this. She also didn t say it with a single sentence in so many words. But reading her essays and books makes it clear that she advocated it after being embittered by the Holocaust.

Answer 4

A better way to express this idea;

"An immoral means, invalidates the end."

Is it ok to steal money if you intend to feed the poor? etc... No matter how good your intentions, you cannot put morality aside to achieve your goals.

Answer 5

Not Karl Rove(erer) and his psychopath friends, nor his uncle who was a "bigwig" in the SS, that's for sure:)))

Answer 6

does not matter how its done, as long as it will come to pass

Answer 7

niccolo machiavelli