A Thematic Discussion

You make your own destiny, hm? Well, that's at least partially true. It's everybody's destiny to die, but you can choose what path you take to get there, though you don't always get to choose when you step off the path, where "there" is. You don't get to control things like natural disasters, and whethere you're fired from your job, but you can choose how you handle it and what kind of a person it makes you. So maybe you don't get to completely make your own destiny--maybe there's some sort of template you have to follow--but you get to pick your colors and shapes and how much you tack on.

The end justifies the means... No. You can't do evil in order to do good. If you have to cheat or lie or steal or otherwise get dirty to reach your goals, then you don't deserve them. You don't deserve the credit or the satisfying sense of accomplishment, because you undermined your character and broke the rules, the important ones, the rules of life. You just reduced yourself, muddied yourself, put dirt in the pure mountain water. You can clean yourself up or let the mud settle, but you're not the same anymore... Not to mention all the harm you can do to other people in the ruthless means of your ends.