Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Hardy warns against committing unethical acts even if the goal is to achieve a moral outcome.
In plain terms
Do not do bad things just to get a good result.
What can you take from it?
Means matter as much as ends.

Where it applies

  • making hard choices
  • resolving ethical conflicts

Putting it to work

  • evaluating methods
  • upholding principles

Questions to consider

  • Can a good end ever justify a bad means?
  • Where do you draw your ethical line?

Another view

It may be impractical in extreme situations where a bad act prevents greater harm.

More from Thomas Hardy

  1. Done because we are too menny.

    Permalink to quote #64
  2. What of the Immanent Will and Its designs? It works unconsciously, as heretofore, Eternal artistries in Circumstance.

    Permalink to quote #66
  3. Sometimes a woman's love of being loved gets the better of her conscience, and though she is agonized at the thought of treating a man cruelly, she encourages …

    Permalink to quote #63

Related quotes

  1. The highest morality may prove also to be the highest wisdom when the half-told story comes to be finished.

    Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan Doyle quote #1
  2. What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural w…

    William JamesWilliam James quote #2
  3. Tell him to live by yes and no - yes to everything good, no to everything bad.

    William JamesWilliam James quote #6