Means Determine Ends

If I mix yellow & blue I'm not going to get orange, no matter how much I wish it. With all but the crudest of ambitions, such as winning a football match, the idea of ends justifying means is inherently idiotic - a superstition where the will or intent is imagined to be sufficient to engender the desired future by some kind of magical two plus two equals five formula. 

Yellow and blue will produce green. The means determine the end.