Motives Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Motives

Motives Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational Motives quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

My means are sane, my motives and my object mad. — Herman Melville

The only work that spiritually purifies us is that which is done without personal motives. — Sri Aurobindo

You brought me here with impure motives?" The idea gave her a stupid thrill.
He shook his head. "No. I developed them after you arrived. — Ruthie Knox

Women don't require motives that are comprehensible to my intellectual processes.
(Nero Wolfe) — Rex Stout

Self-interest lies behind all that men do, forming the important motive for all their actions; this rule has never deceived me — Marquis De Sade

Most entrepreneurs are not doing it for financial motives in the first place. They're just people who love creating. — Richard Branson

Every instance of obedience, from right motives, strengthens us spiritually, whilst every act of disobedience weakens us. — George Muller

The deeds and motive of man define his personality. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Actions are visible, though motives are secret. — Samuel Johnson

I learned then that practically no one in the world is entirely bad or entirely good, and that motives are often more important than actions. — Eleanor Roosevelt

You need to put aside your own selfish motives and consider other people for a change. — Joe Schreiber

I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused. — Graham Greene

If your motives are high and noble and your work is hard and you do a good job, then whatever the task is in your life, it will benefit you. — Frederick Lenz

Never question another man's motive. His wisdom, yes, but not his motives. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

But gossip must see its characters in black and white, equip them with sins and motives easily conveyed in the shorthand of conversation. — John Le Carre

We can never understand other people's motives, nor their furniture. — Mignon McLaughlin

If you wait until your motives are pure and unselfish before you do something, you will wait forever. — Timothy Keller

My mind mends my motives and my notion navigates my natives,for we all are made of soil-our corrupted soil. — Munia Khan

I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses. — Julio Cortazar

Upon examination of a people's history, beware the story teller's motives. — T.F. Hodge

Growing up means learning to dig beneath surface behavior and discern the true motives of others, and to respond to intent, not behavior. — Ramon Stevens

I have always examined closely the motives of any group for which I am asked to raise money. — Kate Smith

Oh, those grumblers! They all take principles as motives and dare not follow their desires. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

First of all; Frank was the BOSS. We didn't question any of his motives or decisions at the time. — Jimmy Carl Black

Is not everything that we consider important our betrayer ? It shows where our motives lie, and where our motives are altogether lacking. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Bushido. The sense of honor which cannot bear being looked down upon as an inferior power, - that was the strongest of motives. — Inazo Nitobe

People always try to find base motives behind every good action. We are afraid of pure goodness and of pure evil. — Eugene Ionesco

another day. I have purely selfish motives. I'm a — J.M. Darhower

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

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

People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic reason-to find out who we really are. — George A. Sheehan

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster. — George Eliot

Fixing motives is like fixing blame-the further away from the act you get, the harder it is to single out one thing as having caused it. — Russell Banks

What good is the legal process if people can decide their motives are bigger than the law? — Jodi Picoult

The New Testament persistently presses us upward, toward higher motives for being good. — Philip Yancey

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

She felt puzzled and ashamed, as always when people attributed to her emotions and motives they possessed and thought she shared. — Margaret Mitchell

what? When men can hate without risk, their stupidity is easily convinced, the motives supply themselves. From — Louis-Ferdinand Celine

To do good is a divine grace. — Lailah Gifty Akita

It is more important to understand the ground of your own behavior than to understand the motives of another. — Dag Hammarskjold

One of the strongest motives for wishing to work on yourself is the realization that you may die at any moment. — G.I. Gurdjieff

Necessity may not be the opposite of freedom, and perhaps a man is most free when, instead of producing motives, he could only say, I am what I do. — C.S. Lewis

Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own. — James M. Barrie

The thirst for education that comes with the change the gospel brings can be a blessing or a curse, depending on our motives. — Henry B. Eyring

We love from little motives, not for large reasons. — Ellen Glasgow

Patriotism and religion are the only two motives in the world which can permanently direct the whole of a body politic to one end. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Those who joined us for selfish personal reasons, for a career or other motives will be the ones to leave. — Janos Kadar

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

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

Love, and consequently fear, of the crowd being one of the most powerful motives in all human beings ... — Marcel Proust

We are all very good at rationalizing our actions so that they are in line with our selfish motives. — Dan Ariely

But if we never acted except when we were certain our motives were pure, we would never act at all. — C.J. Sansom

I wish sometimes you had a few bad motives, you might understand a little more about human beings. — Graham Greene

He who has conferred a benefit on anyone from motives of love or honor will feel pain, if he sees that the benefit is received without gratitude. — Aristotle.

A common fallacy: to imagine a measure will be easy because we have private motives for desiring it. — George Eliot

The young men were born with knives in their brain, a tendency to introversion, self-dissection, anatomizing of motives. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust not in Sprites nor the motivations of a Gnome. — Jefferson Smith

Where there is desire, the means to fulfill it are endless. — A.J. Darkholme

Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping. — Plutarch

Never assume people's motives. It's the easiest way to find yourself upset over nothing or misjudging people — LeCrae

You can have the most wonderful motives for what you do, but if what you do harms other people, you're fooling yourself. — John Carroll Lynch

The things that converge in the writing of a play come from a complex of motives, a genesis shrouded in a certain kind of mystery. — Athol Fugard

So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need. In giving them freedom, we free ourselves. — Marilyn Ferguson

Honest error in the face of complex and possibly intractable problems is a far more important source of bad results than are bad motives. — Ben Bernanke

If you give to get something, you're not giving, you're trading. Your motives are second in importance only to your actions — Jose Silva Jr.

Never judge someone's character based on the words of another. Instead, study the motives behind the words of the person casting the bad judgment. — Suzy Kassem

Even truth becomes just another weapon of division and violence, when shared with impure motives and a defiled heart. — Hope D. Blackwell

Gods tend to be selfish. Even when they're helpful, they always have their own motives. That's why you have to be careful about trusting them. — Rick Riordan

Humble me so I do what is right. Break me so I cling to You. Expose me so my motives stay pure. — Alisa Hope Wagner

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. — Mother Teresa

I knew I should have been more worried about her motives. — R.K. Lilley

Do not feed your motives, just feed the bears. — Anthony Liccione

One of the chief motives of artistic creation is certainly the need of feeling that we are essential in relationship to the world. — Jean-Paul Sartre

Traveling outgrows its motives. It soon proves sufficient in itself. You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making you - or unmaking you. — Nicolas Bouvier

Men are more accountable for their motives, than for anything else; and primarily, morality consists in the motives, that is in the affections. — Archibald Alexander

How working for the wrong motives poisons our creativity and warps our ideas of success and failure. — Ray Bradbury

A man can appear to be a part of something not-so-good on its face, but don't take it upon yourself to judge him unless you know his motives as well. — Harper Lee

We each harbor a shadow self with shadowy motives and murky desires ... — John Geddes

So our building of the visible Church becomes much like any natural business function, using natural means and natural motives. — Francis Schaeffer

Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives. — Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The citizens of the United States have peculiar motives to support the energy of their constitutional charters. — James Madison

The only words free of suspicious motives will be the ones I find in books. — Michelle Moran

When your team questions your motives and methods, you have lost their trust and you will not be able to influence them. — John Fairclough

I'm never going to tell the reader what to believe; I'm going to examine these characters that believe different ways, and examine their motives. — Barbara Kingsolver

Deeds done from bad motives remain everlastingly tainted. — Thich Nhat Hanh

A game of secret, cunning stratagems, in which only the fools who are fated to lose reveal their true aims or motives - even to themselves. — Eugene O'Neill

And now, no matter what I thought I had done or why I did it, it has become completely untrue because of what I have done since. — Tony Burgess

There are 2 motives for reading a book; 1. That you enjoy it, 2. that can boast about it on goodreads. — Bertrand Russell

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

Never go to another woman about your woman. Not unless you want an insidious form of advice. — Donna Lynn Hope

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

It's the millenium, motives are incidental. — Jamie Kennedy

Magnanimity will not consider the prudence of its motives. — Luc De Clapiers

Our motives are useless if we don't start acting it out — Sunday Adelaja

When considering a man's motives, remember you must not measure his wheat with your bushel. He may not be using the same standard at all. — Robin Hobb

Pure motives do not insure perfect results. — Christian Nestell Bovee

Be wary of someone who has never failed, or seem to have no faults... Too good to be true usually is. Perfection hides something. — Henry Cloud

Before impugning an opponent's motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments. — Sidney Hook

An unsound thinker goes where his motives and interests invite him; a sound thinker goes where the argument takes him. — J. Budziszewski

The only treaties that ought to count are those which would effect a settlement between ulterior motives. — Paul Valery