“People ... become so preoccupied with the means by which an end is achieved, as eventually to mistake it for the end. Just as money, which is a means of satisfying wants, comes to be regarded by a miser as the sole thing to be worked for, leaving the wants unsatisfied; so the conduct men have found preferable because most conducive to happiness, has come to be thought of as intrinsically preferable: not only to be made a proximate end (which it should be), but to be made an ultimate end, to the exclusion of the true ultimate end.”
Quote by Herbert Spencer
Author
You May Also Like
Source: The Data of Ethics: Great Essays
“Originally, ethics has no existence apart from religion, which holds it in solution.”
Source: The Principles of Ethics - Completed: Great Essays
“Every unpunished delinquency has a family of delinquencies.”
Source: The Study of Sociology
“Evil perpetually tends to disappear.”
Source: Social Statics: Great Essays
Source: Social Statics: Great Essays
Source: Philosophy of Style: An Essay
Source: Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative
Source: Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects Everyman's Library
