A Quote by Henry David Thoreau

The improved means to the unimproved end.

Henry David Thoreau

Quote Topics

End Improved Means

Quote Author

Henry David Thoreau
American - Author
July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862

Be wary of technology; it is often merely an improved means to an unimproved end.

Henry David Thoreau

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

Henry David Thoreau

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

Henry David Thoreau

Propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. If the means achieves the end then the means is good... the new Ministry has no other aim than to unite the nation behind the ideal of the national revolution.

Joseph Goebbels

We are so anxious to achieve some particular end that we never pay attention to the psycho-physical means whereby that end is to be gained. So far as we are concerned, any old means is good enough. But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

Aldous Huxley

You think the end justifies the means, however vile. I tell you: the end is the means by which you achieve it. Today's step is tomorrow's life. Great ends cannot be attained by base means. You've proved that in all your social upheavals. The meanness and inhumanity of the means make you mean and inhuman and make the end unattainable.

Wilhelm Reich

My understanding of the game has improved. The technical side has improved. All round I have improved in leaps and bounds at United. I learn something every day in training here and I am just loving it.

Phil Jones

In the end, no matter how my records are panned or praised, if there are kids and communities in developing nations that have improved living conditions and are finally getting access to things we all have a basic right to (clean water, education, healthcare) because I am able to advocate, raise awareness or funds in some small way, then my life has achieved something that in the end means far more than having the track or album of the moment.

Brooke Fraser

I want us to organize, to tell the personal stories that create empathy, which is the most revolutionary emotion. The truth of the mater is that hierarchy and violence can't be remedied by more hierarchy and violence. The end doesn't justify the means, the means we choose decide the end we get. The means are the end.

Gloria Steinem

If you FAIL, never give up because F.A.I.L. means "First Attempt in Learning". END is not the end; in fact E.N.D. means "Effort Never Dies". If you get NO as an answer, remember N.O. means "Next Opportunity".

Abdul Kalam

We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.