Quotes about Ends

I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

Be sure that the means you employ are as pure as the end you seek.

It is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends.

Constructive ends can never give absolute moral justification to destructive means, because in the final analysis the end is preexistent in the means.

it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

Animal in man is the drive to concentrate on the satisfaction of needs; spiritual in man is the will to serve higher ends, and in serving ends he transcends his needs.

But the nature of the universe is such that the ends never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

To give organisations precedence over persons is to subordinate ends to means.

Ah, revenge, revenge. In the better world of the imagination it was possible to get one's own back. What fiendish vendettas were there carried to successful ends!

Sixth, the Spiritual Disciplines are means, not ends. The end—that is, the purpose of practicing the Disciplines—is godliness.

So while we cannot be godly without the practice of the Disciplines, we can practice the Disciplines without being godly if we see them as ends and not means.

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live.