Means Quotes

“All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“The end justifies the means. Sometimes you have to do the wrong thing to get the right result.”
― Sebastian Fitzek, Splitter

“Reader: Will you not admit that you are arguing against yourself? You know that what the English obtained in their own country they obtained by using brute force. I know you have argued that what they have obtained is useless, but that does not affect my argument. They wanted useless things and they got them. My point is that their desire was fulfilled. What does it matter what means they adopted? Why should we not obtain our goal, which is good, by any means whatsoever, even by using violence? Shall I think of the means when I have to deal with a thief in the house? My duty is to drive him out anyhow. You seem to admit that we have received nothing, and that we shall receive nothing by petitioning. Why, then, may we do not so by using brute force? And, to retain what we may receive we shall keep up the fear by using the same force to the extent that it may be necessary. You will not find fault with a continuance of force to prevent a child from thrusting its foot into fire. Somehow or other we have to gain our end.

Editor: Your reasoning is plausible. It has deluded many. I have used similar arguments before now. But I think I know better now, and I shall endeavour to undeceive you. Let us first take the argument that we are justified in gaining our end by using brute force because the English gained theirs by using similar means. It is perfectly true that they used brute force and that it is possible for us to do likewise, but by using similar means we can get only the same thing that they got. You will admit that we do not want that. Your belief that there is no connection between the means and the end is a great mistake. Through that mistake even men who have been considered religious have committed grievous crimes. Your reasoning is the same as saying that we can get a rose through planting a noxious weed. If I want to cross the ocean, I can do so only by means of a vessel; if I were to use a cart for that purpose, both the cart and I would soon find the bottom. "As is the God, so is the votary", is a maxim worth considering. Its meaning has been distorted and men have gone astray. The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree. I am not likely to obtain the result flowing from the worship of God by laying myself prostrate before Satan. If, therefore, anyone were to say : "I want to worship God; it does not matter that I do so by means of Satan," it would be set down as ignorant folly. We reap exactly as we sow. The English in 1833 obtained greater voting power by violence. Did they by using brute force better appreciate their duty? They wanted the right of voting, which they obtained by using physical force. But real rights are a result of performance of duty; these rights they have not obtained. We, therefore, have before us in English the force of everybody wanting and insisting on his rights, nobody thinking of his duty. And, where everybody wants rights, who shall give them to whom? I do not wish to imply that they do no duties. They don't perform the duties corresponding to those rights; and as they do not perform that particular duty, namely, acquire fitness, their rights have proved a burden to them. In other words, what they have obtained is an exact result of the means they adapted. They used the means corresponding to the end. If I want to deprive you of your watch, I shall certainly have to fight for it; if I want to buy your watch, I shall have to pay you for it; and if I want a gift, I shall have to plead for it; and, according to the means I employ, the watch is stolen property, my own property, or a donation. Thus we see three different results from three different means. Will you still say that means do not matter?”
― Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas K

“Get out of your mind and become crazy about your future in a creative way!”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“For these treasures, and everything that he collected in his lovely house, were to be to him means of forgetfulness, modes by which he could escape, for a season, from the fear that seemed to him at times to be almost too great to be borne.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“For their never-ending endeavours to obtain or retain wealth, countries desperately need companies, because they—unlike most human beings—have the means of production, and human beings, because they—unlike all companies—have the means of reproduction.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children

“Many millions of pregnancies—many if not most of which have each led to the birth of at least one child—were each used as nothing but a conspicuous means to a secret end called the evasion of abortion.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children

“...we cannot fail to recognise the influence which the progressive control over natural forces exerts on the social relationships between men, since men always place their newly won powers at the service of their aggressiveness, and use them against one another.”
― Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis

“And yet, what seems to be the most intimidating now is not an end in itself, but only a means to a greater end. It must be achieved not because it will mark the end of your struggles, but the beginning of your journey towards the real destination.

Remember, this end is but a means.”
― Aishwarya Bhuta

“To a versifier, sounds are the means and the aim; a poet travels toward the aim using sounds.”
― Dejan Stojanovic, Serbian Satire and Aphorisms

“If you will take any means necessary to achieve a goal it is not a just one any longer.”
― C.A.A. Savastano

“English: "Means are limit of consequences."

Česky: „Prostředky jsou limitem následků.”
― Sebastián Wortys, Vtiposcifilo-z/s-ofie

“Her flippant remark about seeing other people had been so far off base he considered the comment completely AWOL.” ”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Catch .22

“Evil means, he insisted, corrupt and degrade not only the purposes for which they are
undertaken but also the persons who stoop to such means. Overcoming the urge to resort to such means is hardest when one aims to rectify past injustices. It is because ‘hate the sin and not the sinner’ is a precept so rarely practiced that ‘the poison of hatred spreads in the world”
― Sissela Bok, Gandhi: An Autobiography

“As pragmatic as Kitan was in his daily means of execution, he had an inner drive that was starry-eyed and childlike.”
― Nick Oliveri, The Conjurer

“A job should only be a means of attaining the highest goal”
― Sunday Adelaja

“عندما تقرر العبقرية الحصول على هدفٍ ما، فآخر ما يهمها شكل الوسيلة وطبيعتها.”
― جلجامش نبيل, Gilgamesh Nabeel, صراع الأقنعة

“At the core,” means,” is an implementation and capability is an abstraction.”
― Pearl Zhu, Digital Capability: Building Lego Like Capability Into Business Competency

“I said "No"… Which means "No"… so it follows and as it follows "No"….”
― Deyth Banger

“If something is here it means there is something wrong in it.”
― Deyth Banger, BuZoever

“What if "No"… means "Yes" and by itself it's a rape fantasy.”
― Deyth Banger

“Someone once said that ‘the end justifies the means’. And as I think about that, I’m not certain that any kind of ‘means’ that are justified will take me to any kind of ‘end’ that I want to be at in the first place.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Weeds spring up where they are not even sown. So it is with love too. Love takes its own time to bloom in a man’s life. It does not work on his schedule. It feels no need to take into account his situation or his means or state of mind, just ‘happens’ when it has found its right time and when the flower of love springs up, it makes sure the man is coerced to alter the course of his life.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, Game of Big Numbers

“In many if not most cases we truly believe that what is merely a means is really an end.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, On Friendship: A Satirical Essay

“The job of the insurance company is to deny your valid claim by any means necessary.”
― Steven Magee

“Relationships are the Ends, Not the Means.”
― Swen Nater, You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned: John Wooden's Teaching Principles And Practices

“Anyone can manufacture methods, but it’s hard to manufacture results.”
― Richie Norton

“Ever 'habiting' and never 'inhabiting' is a bad habit.

…no way to live.

Habits are means, not ends.

Don’t allow habits to become ends unto themselves.

Get beyond habits, not behind.”
― Richie Norton, Anti-Time Management: Reclaim Your Time and Revolutionize Your Results with the Power of Time Tipping

“People will always rent the affordable rental over the expensive one, even if it means driving a little further.”
― Steven Magee

“And he said...

...reasons may yet justify means.”
― Anthony T. Hincks