Death to the seven sons of Feanor

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

Stick them on the scales and weigh their deeds, is my philosophy. Maedhros tried to be good without betraying his father or the oath. Maglor even more so. Caranthir, Amrrod and Amras I know little about. Celegorm and Curufin seem to have committed the most selfish and hurtful deeds. How do they weigh against the good they did? I'm not sure.

One criticism I have of all the sons is that they tried to have things both ways. If they REALLY wanted to fulfill the oath to the letter they would have done as their father and attacked Morgoth directly time and again until they were dead. Was the mission to regain the Silmarils or wasn't it? Beren and Finrod along with ten others braved a mission that none of the sons of Feanor ever had the sack to even attempt, and Beren actually succeeded in regaining one of the jewels.

Maybe the lesson there is that a vow of love will earn you the blessing of Eru and the Valar but a vow of vengeance and hatred is indeed evil, even if justified.

[Curufin]

For now, believing that Beren and Felagund were prisoners beyond hope of aid, they purposed to let the King perish, and to keep Lúthien, and force Thingol to give her hand to Celegorm. Thus they would advance their power, and become the mightiest of the princes of the Noldor. And they did not purpose to seek the Silmarils by craft or war, or to suffer any others to do so, until they had all the might of the Elf-kingdoms under their hands.

~The Silmarillion "Of Beren and Lúthien"

Celegorm and Curufin didn't attack Morgoth because they'd seen a thousand times over that there was no hope of defeating him alone. They needed help. So they held back, and attempted to get as much power behind them as possible before mounting an offensive. It really wasn't a bad idea...

Beren rushed in where fools fear to tread, and was (moderately) successful, but I think it has to be said that his success was, to a large extent, luck.

And anyway, regaining the Silmarils wasn't the only thing they wanted, but to somehow overthrow Morgoth. And Beren and Finrod didn't accomplish this in the slightest.