What does "the end justifies the means" mean?
Even if you do something terrible, if it achieves something good in the end, it is justified.
Who said, "the end never justifies the means"? What does it mean?
The truth is that nobody really knows who said that phrase first. Niccolo Machiavelli is often quoted as saying the opposite - that the end justifies the means - but he never actually did (he gets mis-quoted a lot). The closest he ever comes is this: "in the actions of all men...when there is no impartial arbiter, one must consider the final result." Or in other words that if there is no other way to tell what is a good thing to do, you can at least try and judge by the outcome of events. The reason we probably don't know who said things like these is that they are really very common ideas. People have been arguing about this kind of thing for just about as long as there have been arguments at all. What your version of the expression means is that you CAN'T use a desired outcome to say that what you're doing is okay. For example, we might agree that eliminating AIDS from the world might be a pretty good idea, but that is just the 'end'. If someone decides he's going to get rid of AIDS by murdering every man, woman, and child with the virus so it can't spread... well, most of us would say that was a VERY bad way of doing it (the means)! In other words, it's not enough just to be trying to do good things... you have to also do them in a good manner!
"The end justifies the means" in The Great Gatsby?
I would say your on the right lines yes he was involved in illegal activity which he justified because he needed money quickly in order to attain his goal faster. Yes he is destructive, he destroyed his self, james gatz and created a new artificial person that would be capable of achieving his dream. However, wouldn;t say the Great Gatsby is teh right book to argue this point as the people with out dreams Tom, and Daisy are a lot more destructive and unethical. Tom, cheats on his wife, pretends to be Wilson's friend, he lies about owning the yellow car to show of to someone much poorer than he because of this Mytrle ran out in front of this car to try and stop him and ended up being killed. He infers that Gatsby was the one having an affair with his wife, causing the death of Gatsby, then Wilson. A bit worse than selling a bit of alcohol, which everyone wanted. Even the president of the time was famous for his beer parties. I'd say that the worst thing you can say about its futility. It draws people in with promises of a better life and traps you in a constant struggle to work harder to achieve it but ultimately it will never make you happy. (for what is worth i disagree with the comment about jobs and gates, as Nick says life is more successful viewed through a single window, yes they are wealthy, but so was Gatsby and look what a mess his life was) if you need quotes to prove anything I've said or your thinking check out www.quote-companion.co.uk