The ends justify the means.
What matters is not how you achieve something, but what is achieved. For instance, lying may be permissible if you accomplish some worthwhile goal by lying. Taken to its logical conclusion, as many rulers such as Hitler, Mao, and Stalin have done, even the murder of millions of people may be acceptable in order to achieve some end.
Most people, especially the best people, have an innate inclination to govern their lives by some set of moral rules. But they never really clearly define those rules, and violate the rules when they find it inconvenient to live by them. Thus their life is a muddled conflict between their desire to achieve their goals at all costs, and their desire to act ethically.
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