Motive Quotes - Page 26

• The meaning of what is said is according to the motive for saying it: because things are not subject to speech, but speech to things. Therefore we should take account of the motive of the lawgiver, rather than of his very words.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Speech, Should, Said

  Saint Thomas Aquinas, Catholic Way Publishing (2014). “The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition”, p.4380, Catholic Way Publishing

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• If Americans are frustrated with Congress, imagine their frustration with a group of international bank officials running our ecomomy-bankers who may not have as their motive either to see us out of debt to them or to strengthen our economy, society, international influence, or other elements of our way of life.

  Oliver DeMille

  Running, Frustration, Frustrated

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• The motive force of history is truth and not lies.

  Leon Trotsky

  Lying, Force

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• Some may say [journal keeping] is a great deal of trouble. But we should not call anything trouble which brings to pass good. I consider that portion of my life which has been spent in keeping journals and writing history to have been very profitably spent. - "If there was no other motive in view [except] to have the privilege of reading over our journals and for our children to read, it would pay for the time spent in writing it.

  Wilford Woodruff

  Children, Reading, Writing

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• One of the things I found is that the things we want to say for well-intentioned motives often cause more harm than good. People don't need our words. They mainly need our presence, they need our love. And if you come in too quickly with explanations, you may do more harm than good.

  Philip Yancey

  People, Needs, Our Words

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I came from the time of so-called New Criticism - the poem in itself, the writing in itself - but around that time I had come across a critic called Kenneth Burke, who wrote a book called A Rhetoric of Motives, and it seemed to talk about another way, and gradually I realized that other way was that the reader made a difference.

  Vito Acconci

  Book, Writing, Differences

  Interview with Shelley Jackson, believermag.com. January 1, 2007.

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• The eternal ambiguity of human motives and memory.

  Ben Brantley

  Memories, Ambiguity, Humans

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• I also try to weigh my motives. Am I doing what I'm doing because it's what God desires, or because I'm afraid people will be disappointed if I don't?

  Tricia Goyer

  People, Desire, Trying

  FaceBook post by Tricia Goyer from Mar 29, 2014

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• There's nothing wrong with being proud of America, believing that America can do great things. America can do great things, it has done great things. I think we have to have the self-awareness to recognize that the world is a very, very big place, that we could be a force for good things in the world, but we have to have the humility to recognize that sometimes even when we think we're acting from the best of motives our own idealism can be infected by self-interest. Other people in other countries can see it sometimes better than we can.

  Peter Beinart

  Country, Believe, Humility

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and extract a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. Most begin to veer and tack as soon as the wind changes from aft, and as within the tropics it does not blow from all points of the compass, there are some harbors which they can never reach.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Blow, Wind, Sailing

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.688, Simon and Schuster

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• Happy will that house be in which the relations are formed from character; after the highest, and not after the lowest order; the house in which character marries, and not confusion and a miscellany of unavowable motives.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Happy, Character, Order

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2447, Delphi Classics

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• The Liberty of the press consists in the right to publish with impunity truth with good motives for justifiable ends, though reflecting on government, magistracy, or individuals.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Liberty, Individual

  Alexander Hamilton (1851). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Political essays [etc., 1792-1804] Contents. Index”, p.849

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• The deduction of effect from cause is often blocked by some insuperable extrinsic obstacle: the true causes may be quite unknown. Nowhere in life is this so common as in war, where the facts are seldom fully known and the underlying motives even less so.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  War, May, Causes

  Carl von Clausewitz (2008). “On War”, p.156, Princeton University Press

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• Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Action, Malice, Good Actions

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”, p.524

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• The desire for legitimate offspring is, in fact, according to the Catholic Church, the only motive which can justify sexual intercourse.

  Bertrand Russell

  Catholic, Church, Desire

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “Bertrand Russell's Best”, p.43, Routledge

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• Vanity is a motive of immense potency.

  Bertrand Russell

  Vanity, Potency, Immense

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.448, Routledge

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• Lies are just another kind of storytelling, but with the very distinct and enlivening motive of desperation. Since writers are by nature desperate creatures, they usually do a pretty good (or pretty awful, but always interesting) job of lying.

  John Hodgman

  Jobs, Lying, Interesting

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• When starting to think about any novel, part of the motive is: I'm going to show them, this time.

  Kingsley Amis

  Thinking, Starting, Novel

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• In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes.

  Albert Einstein

  Sports, Ambition, Intellectual

  Albert Einstein (2011). “Essays in Science”, p.11, Open Road Media

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• Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers. Take the cable thread by thread, take separately all the little determining motives, you break them one after another, and you say: that is all! Wind them and twist them together, they become an enormity.

  Victor Hugo

  Wind, Together, Twists

  Victor Hugo (1994). “Les Miserables Volume One”, p.323, Wordsworth Editions

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• Every action needs to be prompted by a motive. To know and to will are two operations of the human mind. Discerning, judging, deliberating are acts of the human mind.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Two, Judging, Mind

  Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.807, Delphi Classics

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• When you question a man's motives, when you say they are acting out of greed, they are in the pocket of an interest group, et cetera. It's awful hard to reach consensus. It's awful hard to reach across the table and shake hands. No matter how bitterly you disagree, though, it is always possible if you question judgment and not motive.

  Joe Biden

  Men, Hands, Greed

  "Best and worst of 2015 commencement address season". "The Five" with Eric Bolling, www.foxnews.com. May 18, 2015.

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• Above all, ascribe no decent motives to the federal government. Always and everywhere, it is the enemy of truth.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Government, Enemy, Decent

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• Nothing would prove more disastrous to our ideas, we contended, than to neglect the effect of the internal upon the external, of the psychological motives and needs upon existing institutions.

  Emma Goldman

  Ideas, Needs, Psychological

  "Living My Life". Book by Emma Goldman, p. 402, 1931.

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• I talk to groups studying the most advanced spiritual teachings and sometimes these people wonder why nothing is happening in their lives. Their motive is the attainment of inner peace for themselves - which of course is a selfish motive. You will not find it with this motive. The motive, if you are to find inner peace, must be an outgoing motive. Service, of course, service. Giving, not getting. Your motive must be good if your work is to have good effect. The secret of life is being of service.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Spiritual, Selfish, Teaching

  Peace Pilgrim (1992). “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words”, p.17, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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