My understanding is that the quote is meant to invert the way we normally think of consequentialism (that making the world a better place is doing the right thing). The quote simply puts the logic in causal order, such that we can naturally say “I am doing the right thing if (and only if?) it makes the world a better place.”
Suitably pithy, but that really should be the other way around shouldn’t it?
NB: I recognise the difference between quoting and approving of the quote.
My understanding is that the quote is meant to invert the way we normally think of consequentialism (that making the world a better place is doing the right thing). The quote simply puts the logic in causal order, such that we can naturally say “I am doing the right thing if (and only if?) it makes the world a better place.”
Well, you need an implicit “and doing the wrong thing does not” before it becomes logically equivalent to consequentialism.