the end justifies the means
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.23 in modern English
42
Scrabble Score
23
Letters
3
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Marxists were often criticized for believing that the ends justified the means, yet these old Cold Warriors were now the ones using ends to justify means—attacking science in the name of freedom."
- "Shepard: You honestly think the experiments you did here are justified? Maelon: We committed cultural genocide! Nothing I do will ever be justified! Maelon: The experiments are monstrous... because I was taught to be a monster. Shepard: Mordin, did you ever perform experiments like this? Mordin: No. Never taught you this, Maelon. Maelon: So your hands are clean! What does it matter if the ground is stained with the blood of millions! Maelon: You taught me that the end justified the means. I will undo what we did, Professor. The only way I know how."
- "The White House argument is simple: that the end justifies the means."
Etymology
Falsely attributed to Machiavelli's The Prince, which does not use the phrase in the work. A possible source is Ovid's Heroides (ca. 10 BCE), which says exitus ācta probat (“the outcome justifies the deeds”). However, its use there is quite likely to have an opposite meaning of outcome proving means were unjustified, based on its context.