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“When pressed by Leslie Stahl of CBS television about half a million children who died because of the US’s continuous military blockade of Iraq, Madeleine Albright, then US ambassador to the United Nations, did not deny the charge and admitted that ‘this was a difficult choice to take’. But she justified that choice: ‘we think the price was worth paying.’

“Albright, let us be fair, neither was nor is alone in following that kind of reasoning. ‘You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs’ is the favourite excuse of the visionaries, the spokespeople for the officially endorsed visions, and the generals acting on the spokespeople’s behest alike. That formula has turned over the years into a veritable motto of our brave modern times.”

- Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds (2003)

Orwell criticised Stalinists for saying that the ends justified the means, but in Oceania the means justify themselves. The point is to break eggs without proceeding to make an omelette.

- Dorian Lynskey, The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 (2019)