---
title: "I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a… — C. S. Lewis Quote #76 | QuotesBy.net"
description: "I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a conscientious revolutionary who has, in a sense sincerely, been justifying crue… — a quote by C. S. Lewis."
image: "https://quotesby.net/wp-content/themes/quotesby-editorial/assets/og-default.png"
---

> # I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a conscientious revolutionary who has, in a sense sincerely, been justifying cruelties and injustices inflicted on millions of his contemporaries by the benefits which he hopes to confer on future generations: generations who, as one terrible moment now reveals to him, were never going to exist. Then he will see the massacres, the faked trials, the deportations, to be all ineffaceably real, an essential part, his part, in the drama that has just ended: while the future Utopia had never been anything but a fantasy.

[C. S. Lewis](https://quotesby.net/C.-S.-Lewis)\#76

[Ethics](https://quotesby.net/C.-S.-Lewis/ethics/)[Politics](https://quotesby.net/topics/politics/)[Utopia](https://quotesby.net/topics/utopia/)[Violence](https://quotesby.net/topics/violence/)

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## About this quote

What does it mean?Revolutionaries who justify atrocities for future utopias will face horror when they realize that future never arrives, leaving only the real crimes.In plain termsTerrorists will see their real crimes when their utopia never comes.What can you take from it?Violence for future ideals is futile.

### Where it applies

- political activism
- moral reflection
- historical analysis

### Putting it to work

- question violent means
- avoid justifying cruelty

### Questions to consider

- What utopias justify violence?
- Can future benefits justify past crimes?

### Another view

Some may still believe the ends justify the means.

## More from C. S. Lewis

1. > But how can the characters in a play guess the plot? We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage. To …

[Permalink to quote \#75](https://quotesby.net/C.-S.-Lewis/75/ "Permalink to quote 75")
2. > Christian Apocalyptic offers us no such hope. It does not even foretell, (which would be more tolerable to our habits of thought) a gradual decay. It foretells…

[Permalink to quote \#77](https://quotesby.net/C.-S.-Lewis/77/ "Permalink to quote 77")
3. > If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

[Permalink to quote \#74](https://quotesby.net/C.-S.-Lewis/74/ "Permalink to quote 74")

## Related quotes

1. > Violence is, of course, alien to our ideals.

[Vladimir Lenin](https://quotesby.net/Vladimir-Lenin)[Vladimir Lenin quote \#1](https://quotesby.net/Vladimir-Lenin/1/ "Permalink to quote 1")
2. > There is a difference. If you kill to take money or rob, it is plain murder, but if you kill because of political reasons, that is a political murder.

[Rudolf Hoss](https://quotesby.net/Rudolf-Hoss)[Rudolf Hoss quote \#3](https://quotesby.net/Rudolf-Hoss/3/ "Permalink to quote 3")
3. > The humanitarian in theory is the terrorist in action.

[Isabel Paterson](https://quotesby.net/Isabel-Paterson)[Isabel Paterson quote \#6](https://quotesby.net/Isabel-Paterson/6/ "Permalink to quote 6")

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