The ends justify the means
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"The ends justify the means" is a slogan for the belief that morally wrong actions are sometimes necessary to achieve morally right outcomes. Though such a view is implicit in many moral philosophies (especially utilitarianism), and almost all persons would be willing to commit small moral transgressions in the service of a greater good, the phrase is most often used to denote the much stronger view that any action in the service of an important enough cause is justified. This view is found in many radical political ideologies, and the atrocities committed by Jacobins, communists, capitalists, fascists, and others are often attributed to a form of moral blindness in which a powerful ultimate goal becomes an excuse to ignore ordinary moral considerations. For example, Karl Rove has been quoted as using this phrase to excuse political dirty tricks.
In some applications at least, this argument is related to the question of serving the greater good in which the means is detrimental to an individual or a small (i.e., minority) group while appearing to benefit the majority or the vaguely defined society. For example, faced with a bomb hidden in a metropolitan area, it could be considered morally justifiable to torture the person who knows where it is. Given the belief that torture is wrong, one could consider it moral to commit that wrong in the interests of saving thousands of lives. As is often, but certainly not always, the case with this dilemma, this is a lesser of two evils situation.
Few people will use the ends justify the means to describe their own views; instead, the phrase is often used to cast suspicion on the actions or motivations of others.
Some free-market libertarians, following Robert Nozick, characterize their views using the reversed slogan the means justify the ends.
Most religions do not endorse the utilitarian philosophy, for example, Jesus' doctrine of the golden rule, and the Hindu doctrine of karma would both discourage actions based on a purely utilitarian justification.