Motive Quotes - Page 24

• Motives by excess reverse their very nature and instead of exciting, stun and stupefy the mind.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Mind, Excess, Exciting

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1856). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions”, p.315

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• The motive of success is not enough.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Success, Enough

  Alfred North Whitehead (1967). “Adventures of Ideas”, p.98, Simon and Schuster

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• One must have deeper motives and judge everything accordingly, but go on talking like an ordinary person.

  Blaise Pascal

  Talking, Judging, Ordinary

  Blaise Pascal (1966). “Pascal Pensées”, Penguin Classics

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• When we do not know the truth of a thing, it is good that there should exist a common error which determines the mind of man, as, for example, the moon, to which is attributed the change of seasons, the progress of diseases, etc. For the chief malady of man is a restless curiosity about things which he cannot understand; and it is not so bad for him to be in error as to be curious to no purpose.

  Blaise Pascal

  Truth, Men, Moon

  Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pascal's Pensees”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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• Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing, which remark I guess shows I still don't have a pure motive (O it's-such-fun-I-just-can't-stop-who-cares-if-it's-published-or-read) about writing.

  Sylvia Plath

  Fun, Writing, Who Cares

  sylvia plath (1971). “the bell jar”

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• sacrifice' was often a cloak for many actions that did not always stem from the highest motives.

  Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

  Sacrifice, Action, Cloaks

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• Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact; and the public stock of honest manly principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough (and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostasy.

  Edmund Burke

  Men, Long, Guilt

  Edmund Burke (2008). “The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with America; Security of the Independence of Parliament; on Mr. Fox's East India”, p.242, Cosimo, Inc.

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• if you want to create art, you'd best have a deep belief in yourself and no ulterior motives.

  Twyla Tharp

  Art, Want, Belief

  Twyla Tharp (1992). “Push Comes to Shove”, Bantam Dell Publishing Group

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• To every man in the world there is one person of whom he knows little: whom he would never recognize if he met him walking down the street, whose motives are a mystery to him. That is himself.

  Rebecca West

  Men, World, Littles

  Rebecca West (2011). “The Meaning of Treason”, p.260, Open Road Media

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• Money destroys human roots wherever it is able to penetrate, by turning desire for gain into the sole motive. It easily manages to outweigh all other motives, because the effort it demands of the mind is so very much less. Nothing is so clear and so simple as a row of figures.

  Simone Weil

  Simple, Roots, Effort

  Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.44, Routledge

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• There is no such thing as an exact synonym and no such thing as an unmixed motive.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Motivation, Synonym

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• One little human truth is that opinionated people don't hold much with other people's opinions, and it is a great pleasure to some of them to be able to ascribe incurable defects, such as belonging to a certain sex; or base motives, or lack of understanding, to anyone whose views they disagree with.

  Katherine Anne Porter

  Sex, Views, People

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• There is no hope for the world unless and until we formulate, accept and state publicly a true moral code of individualism, based on man's inalienable right to live for himself. Neither to hurt nor to serve his brothers, but to be independent of them in his function and in his motive. Neither to sacrifice them for himself nor to sacrifice himself for them.

  Ayn Rand

  Hurt, Brother, Independent

  Ayn Rand (1997). “Letters of Ayn Rand”, p.105, Penguin

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• The measure of our rationality determines the degree of vividness with which we appreciate the needs of other life, the extent to which we become conscious of the real character of our own motives and impulses, the ability to harmonize conflicting impulses in our own life and in society, and the capacity to choose adequate means for approved ends.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Real, Character, Mean

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.204, Library of America

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• Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.

  Lord Acton

  Spiritual, Men, Policemen

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• Men of many words sometimes argue for the sake of talking; men of ready tongues frequently dispute for the sake of victory; men in public life often debate for the sake of opposing the ruling party, or from any other motive than the love of truth.

  George Crabbe

  Party, Men, Talking

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• A politician or political thinker who calls himself a political realist is usually boasting that he sees politics, so to speak, in the raw; he is generally a proclaimed cynic and pessimist who makes it his business to look behind words and fine speeches for the motive. This motive is always low.

  Mary McCarthy

  Political, Looks, Speech

  Mary McCarthy (1964). “The humanist in the bathtub”

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• In a thousand voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel's "Messiah," it is possible to distinguish the leading voices, but the differences of training and cultivation between them and the voices in the chorus, are lost in the unity of purpose and in the fact that they are all human voices lifted by a high motive.

  Jane Addams

  Voice, Differences, Unity

  Jane Addams (2012). “Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes”, p.82, Courier Corporation

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• Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action.

  Mary Baker Eddy

  Giving, Speech, Action

  Mary Baker Eddy (2014). “Science And Health”, p.543, Jazzybee Verlag

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• He died right after he retired, and seeing that made me feel more conscious of a man needing a motive to live. If I ever got out of coaching, I would have to get a job somewhere, or I'm afraid I'd wilt on the vine, too.

  Bobby Bowden

  Jobs, Men, Nfl

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• How frequently is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped With the imputation of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!

  Laurence Sterne

  Honesty, Integrity, Men

  Laurence Sterne (1857). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, Sermons, Letters, Etc”, p.548

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• If 'heartache' sounds exaggerated then surely you have never gone to your garden one rare morning in June to find that the frost, without any perceptible motive, any hope of personal gain, has quietly killed your strawberry blossoms, tomatoes, lima and green beans, corn, squash, cucumbers. A brilliant sun is now smiling at this disaster with an insenstive cheerfulness as out of place as a funny story would be if someone you loved had just died.

  Ruth Stout

  Morning, Garden, June

  Ruth Stout (1987). “How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening”, Fireside

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• You can question somebody's views and their judgment without questioning their motives or patriotism.

  Barack Obama

  Views, Judgment, Questioning

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• Formerly, a nation that broke the peace, did not trouble to try and prove to the world that it was done solely from higher motives. ... Now war has a bad conscience. Now every nation assures us that it is bleeding for a human cause, the fate of which hangs in the balance of its victory ... No nation dares to admit the guilt of blood before the world.

  Ellen Key

  War, Fate, Blood

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• The motives even of our best actions will not always bear examination.

  Charlotte Lennox

  Motivation, Examination, Bears

  Charlotte Lennox (1762). “Sophia”, p.190

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