The Quotes canon

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I must be cruel only to be kind. — William Shakespeare · 1616To do a great right, do a little wrong. — William Shakespeare · 1598
The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced. — Aldous Huxley · 1937
As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy. — Christopher Dawson · 1942
The end justifies the means. — Hermann Busenbaum · 1650
A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in its turn needs to be justified. — Leon Trotsky · 1938
For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BC
It is the object only of war that makes it honorable. And if there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged. — Thomas Paine · 1778