English Explanatory Dictionary

the end justifies the means

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb
  1. Morally wrong actions are sometimes necessary to achieve morally right outcomes; actions can be considered morally right or wrong only by virtue of the morality of the outcome.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-the end justifies the means.wav

Word forms

the end justifies the means the ends justify 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.

Related words

by any means end in itself means to an end ways and means all's fair in love and war consequentialism
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on T Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary