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About this quote

What does it mean?
Need may excuse an action but does not make it morally good.
In plain terms
Necessity explains actions but does not praise them.
What can you take from it?
Understand reasons without celebrating mistakes.

Where it applies

  • legal defense
  • moral dilemmas
  • policy decisions

Putting it to work

  • evaluate motives carefully
  • distinguish excuse from virtue

Questions to consider

  • When does need excuse a wrong act?
  • What makes an act truly praiseworthy?

Another view

Sometimes necessity does make an act virtuous.

More from Joseph Joubert

  1. Monuments are the grappling-irons that bind one generation to another.

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  2. Never cut what you can untie.

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  3. Misery is almost always the result of thinking.

    Permalink to quote #37

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