Motive Quotes - Page 2

• The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Religious, Atheist, Fear

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• At the core, our motives are always self-serving, Kate. Altruism is a fog created by sly minds seeking to benefit from the energy and skill of others. Nothing more.

  Ilona Andrews

  Fog, Self, Skills

  Ilona Andrews (2009). “Magic Strikes”, p.67, Penguin

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• In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.

  Anna Brownell Jameson

  Peace, Ubuntu, Evil

  Anna Brownell Jameson (1877). “A commonplace book of thoughts, memories and fancies, original and selected”, p.72

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• He never does a proper thing without giving an improper reason for it.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Giving, Doe, Reason

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion”, p.1448, e-artnow

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• Pure motives do not insure perfect results.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Perfect, Results, Pure

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• You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of false motive. Never complain and never explain.

  Stanley Baldwin

  Political, Complaining, Politics

  In Harold Nicolson Diary (1967) 21 July 1943

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• Where destruction is the motive, unity is dangerous. For example, if I have evil intent and I galvanize that evil intent with many others, the capacity to destroy is immense. Where goodness is the motive, unity is phenomenal and actually has some good issues to it.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Issues, Evil, Unity

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• However much I may sympathise with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  May, Opponents, Violence

  Young India, 11 Dec. 1924

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• The mingled incentives which lead to action are often too subtle and lie too deep for us to analyze.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Lying, Incentives, Action

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• The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Life, Strength, Courage

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• Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

  Denis Diderot

  Patriotic, Patriotism, Ephemeral

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.

  James M. Barrie

  Revenge, Opponents, Conflict

  Rectorial Address at St Andrew's, 3 May 1922, in The Times 4 May 1922

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• The beginning of self-knowledge: recognizing that your motives are the same as other people's.

  Mason Cooley

  Self, People, Literature

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• In a promise, what you thought, and not what you said, is always to be considered.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Promise, Said

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (1856). “Cicero's Three Books Of Offices, Or Moral Duties: Also His Cato Major, an Essay on Old Age; Laelius, an Essay on Friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate”, p.24

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• Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their hearts, as to their garden.

  William Shenstone

  Heart, Men, Garden

  William Shenstone (1804). “Essays on Men and Manners”, p.43

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• Cruel and cold is the judgment of man, Cruel as winter, and cold as the snow; But by-and-by will the deed and the plan Be judged by the motive that lieth below.

  John L. Bates

  Winter, Men, Snow

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• I try to be careful with my persuasiveness. When my heart is really behind it, and when I have no ulterior motive, then I know I’m truly persuasive.

  Giancarlo Esposito

  Heart, Trying, Persuasive

  "Q&A – Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring)". AMC Interview, www.amc.com.

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• I keep renaming my motives, but continue doing the same things.

  Mason Cooley

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• Never fear to bring the sublimest motive to the smallest duty, and the most infinite comfort to the smallest trouble.

  Phillips Brooks

  Comfort, Trouble, Infinite

  Phillips Brooks “The Joy of Preaching”, Kregel Publications

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• Many actions, like the Rhone, have two sources,--one pure, the other impure.

  Augustus William Hare

  Two, Action, Source

  Julius Charles Hare, Augustus William Hare (1861). “Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers: From the Fifth London Ed”, p.30

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• The whole world is put in motion by the wish for riches and the dread of poverty.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wish, Poverty, World

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.92

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• For there's nothing we read of in torture's inventions, Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.

  James Russell Lowell

  Motivation, Intention, Invention

  James Russell Lowell (1856). “Reader! Walk Up at Once (it Will Soon be Too Late) and Buy at a Perfectly Ruinous Rate a Fable for Critics: Or, Better, (I Like, as a Thing that the Reader's First Fancy May Strike, an Old Fashioned Title-page, Such as Presents a Tabular View of the Volume's Contents) a Glance at a Few of Our Literary Progenies (Mrs. Malaprop's Word) from the Tub of Diogenes; a Vocal and Musical Medley”, p.17

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• Men's minds are as variant as their faces. Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are alike unavoidable.

  George Washington

  Men, Mind, Faces

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.246

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• Iago's soliloquy - the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity - how awful it is!

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Hunting, Awful

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations". Compiled by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt and Kate Louise Roberts, 1922.

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• One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Success, Congratulations

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