Did the Buddha himself say anything about 'greater good'?

The phrase comes up -- especially when discussing 'militarism' -- in the secondary literature; e.g. > that “one must sacrifice the lesser good for the greater good”; so too > must “our heroes sacrifice their lives in order to preserve the naition... Buddhism and Politics in Thailand, p154 Did the Buhddha say anything like this? The closest I know of is "be a lamp unto yourself", but in effect that could legitimize all sorts of errors. Specifically I mean examples analogous to serving in the military: when some wrong doing is permitted due to "the greater good".