Motive Quotes - Page 13

• [The proposed establishment] will have a . . . tendency to banish our Citizens. . . . To superadd a fresh motive to emigration by revoking the liberty which they now enjoy, would be the same species of folly which has dishonoured and depopulated flourishing kingdoms.

  James Madison

  Church, Liberty, Would Be

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• Secrecy can spring from the best motives; but as it grows it begins to exist only for itself, only for its own sake, only to cover its own abuses.

  Christopher Dodd

  Spring, Abuse, Sake

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• One principle I've been fighting for that doesn't endear me to a lot of people is that black people can be just as complicated and screwed up as white people. Our motives can be just as base and violent. Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Fighting, White, People

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• Caregiving has no second agendas or hidden motives. The care is given from love for the joy of giving without expectation, no strings attached.

  Gary Zukav

  Strings Attached, Giving, Expectations

  "Why Painful Things Happen to Good People" by Gary Zukav, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 18, 2013.

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• Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.

  Henry Watson Fowler

  Beautiful, Witty, Giving

  A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926)

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• The doctrine called Philosophical Necessity is simply this: that, given the motives which are present to an individual's mind, and given likewise the character and disposition of the individual, the manner in which he will act might be unerringly inferred: that if we knew the person thoroughly, and knew all the inducements which are acting upon him, we could foretell his conduct with as much certainty as we can predict any physical event.

  John Stuart Mill

  Philosophical, Character, Science

  John Stuart Mill (2016). “A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive: Mill's Works”, p.852, VM eBooks

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• If you are not as happy as you used to be, chances are you are not meditating properly. You may be trying to skip steps. You are using power incorrectly. Your motives are not pure. You don't vibrate quickly.

  Frederick Lenz

  Happiness, Buddhism, Trying

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• Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives.

  Criss Jami

  Fighting, Understanding, Enemy

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.79, Criss Jami

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• Humanity is made up of an infinity of different individuals. Each of us travels for motives exclusively his own.

  Ella Maillart

  Humanity, Different, Literature

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• It is a good motive, fame and money, as it is tangible and measurable. Being an artist is neither measurable nor tangible and certainly not a way to become rich.

  Dirk Benedict

  Artist, Tangible, Way

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• The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil.

  Franz Kafka

  Evil, Whiplash, Ulterior Motive

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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• It is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Sake, Action, Ulterior Motive

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2001). “Flow: the psychology of optimal experience”

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• One must know ones enemy as he is, not as one, for whatever motives, wishes him to be.

  Eugen Kogon

  Enemy, Wish, Knows

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• The automobile is technologically more sophisticated than the bundling board, but the human motives in their uses are sometimes the same.

  Charles Mengel Allen

  Boards, Use, Driving

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• Capitalism justified itself and was adopted as an economic principle on the express ground that it provides selfish motives for doing good, and that human beings will do nothing except for selfish motives

  George Bernard Shaw

  Selfish, Principles, Justified

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• The true motives of our actions, like the real pipes of an organ, are usually concealed; but the gilded and hollow pretext is pompously placed in the front for show.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Real, Deceit, Our Actions

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.62

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• Marxism: The theory that all the important things in history are rooted in an economic motive, that history is a science, a science of the search for food.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Food, Science, Important

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• To be free from all egoistic motive, careful of truth in speech and action, void of self-will and self-assertion, watchful in all things, is the condition for being a flawless servant.

  Sri Aurobindo

  Self, Speech, Flawless

  Sri Aurobindo, Aurobindo Ghose (1993). “The Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice”, p.143, Lotus Press

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• Watchfulness is the only guard against cunning. Be intent on his intentions. Many succeed in making others do their own affairs, and unless you possess the key to their motives you may at any moment be forced to take their chestnuts out of the fire to the damage of your own fingers.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Fire, Keys, May

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• Feast of Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253 Commemoration of John Henry Newman, Priest, Teacher, Tractarian, 1890 It is our great relief that God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss, that he looks at the motives, and accepts and blesses in spite of incidental errors.

  John Henry Newman

  Teacher, Order, Errors

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• Too great a preoccupation with motives (especially one's own motive) is liable to lead to too little concern for consequences.

  Katharine Whitehorn

  Motivation, Littles, Preoccupation

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• The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak hate not wickedness but weakness; and one instance of their hatred of weakness is hatred of self. All the passionate pursuits of the weak are in some degree a striving to escape, blur, or disguise an unwanted self. It is a striving shot through with malice, envy, self-deception, and a host of petty impulses; yet it often culminates in superb achievements.

  Eric Hoffer

  Hate, Spring, Sacrifice

  Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

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• The four great motives for writing prose are sheer egoism, esthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose.

  George Orwell

  Writing, Political, Historical

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• Be fair. Don't present your version of the truth to others. Lose your ulterior motives! Be accurate and pure in your presentation of the way, and you will become the way.

  Frederick Lenz

  Way, Accurate, Presentation

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• Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon society and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism?

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Military

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