Justifying
The line, often adopted by strong men in controversy, of justifying the means by the end. - Saint Jerome, Letter 48
Men are rewarded or punished not for what they do but for how their acts are defined. That is why men are more interested in better justifying themselves than in better behaving themselves. - Thomas S. Szasz
A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion. - Robert Chapman
Disgust with dirt can be so great that it prevents us from cleaning ourselves - from “justifying” ourselves. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Aphorisms in Beyond Good and Evil