About this quote

Changing a situation isn't the same as improving it; how the change is won gets baked into the result. Tainted methods carry their taint forward, so a victory built on deceit or force tends to reproduce the very thing it promised to fix.

When to use it

• A company that props up quarterly numbers by cutting corners and inherits the scandal a year later.
• A student who cheats into an advanced class and then can't keep up with work they never actually learned.
• Campaigners who win a rule change through smears and watch the bitterness poison their own coalition afterward.