‘The end justifies the means.’ There are few more effective passion-raisers than this hackneyed sentence. To accuse A someone of holding the doctrine can cause great offence; and to be so brazen as to defend it in argument may rouse even greater indignation. But what, whether it is true or not, does it mean? What does ‘justify’ mean? ‘To make just’ is the obvious answer; ‘the end makes the means just'. ‘Justify’ means to make just, as ‘rectify’ means to make right. But when a mistake is rectified, something happens, something is put right that was wrong; you had your tie on crooked, and now you have put it straight, you have rectified it. Nothing happens, however, in the same obvious sense, when the end justifies the means, or when (using the word justify’ more strictly) you justify your actions.