#justifying

...Imagine that you yourself are building the edifice of human destiny with the object of making people happy in the finale, of giving them peace and rest at last, but for that you must inevitably and unavoidably torture just one tiny creature, that same child who was beating her chest with her little fist, and raise your edifice on the foundation of her unrequited tears--would you agree to be the architect on such conditions? ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#means-justifying-the-ends #profound #religion #sublime #imagination

Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods. ↗

— Margaret Chase Smith

#end #greatness #high #justifying #manifested

Never do a wrong thing to make a friend--or to keep one. ↗

— Robert E. Lee

#means-justifying-the-ends #moral-courage #courage

You cannot have the right to do what is wrong! ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#means-justifying-the-ends #moral-courage #courage

These Scriptures, therefore, are infinitely far from justifying the slavery under consideration; for it cannot be made to appear that one in a thousand of these slaves has done any thing to forfeit his own liberty. ↗

— Samuel Hopkins

#appear #cannot #consideration #done #far

In the past 30 years, officials of the Iranian regime and its apologists have labeled criticism, especially with regard to women's rights, as anti-Islamic and pro-Western, justifying its brutalities by ascribing them to Islam and Iran's culture. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#criticism #culture #especially #in the past #iran

Justifying conscription to promote the cause of liberty is one of the most bizarre notions ever conceived by man! Forced servitude, with the risk of death and serious injury as a price to live free, makes no sense. ↗

— Ron Paul

#cause #conceived #conscription #death #ever

Reputation is fine but you have to keep justifying it. In a sense, it makes it harder because people's expectations of you are higher. So, you have to fulfill those expectations. Or, try to exceed those expectations. But, it becomes more difficult as time goes on. ↗

— Derek Jacobi

#becomes #difficult #exceed #expectations #fine

But let me tell you what happens when regulations go too far, when they seem to exist only for the purpose of justifying the existence of a regulator. It kills the people trying to start a business. ↗

— Marco Rubio

#exist #existence #far #go #happens