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Motive Quotes

Browse 1214 quotes about Motive.

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Motive Quotes

“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.”

PeopleThinkingWorldBelieveSelfCountrySometimesDoneBigsAmericaForceInterestCan DoActingAwarenessHumilityProudSelf AwarenessGood ThingsGreat ThingsMotiveOther CountriesIdealismBe ProudSelf Interest
Author:Peter Beinart
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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.”

LooksPurposeFoundSportsBrainSpecialProductsAmbitionIntellectualSatisfactionVariousSuperiorsMotiveTemplesJoyfulVividAltarsMansionsUtilitarian
Book:Essays in Science
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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.”

IfsMenMatterHardHandsInterestActingGroupsJudgmentTablesGreedAwfulMotiveShakesPocketsDisagreeConsensusInterest GroupsActing Out
Author:Joe Biden
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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.”

PeopleIfsGivingSometimesSpiritualLife IsCoursesSecretWonderStudyGroupsTeachingEffectsHappeningsBe GoodSelfishInner PeaceMotiveAttainmentSecret LifeOutgoingSpiritual TeachingSelfish Motives
Book:Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words
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“Rationalization is a cover-up, a process of providing one's emotions with a false identity, of giving them spurious explanations and justifications - in order to hide one's motives, not just from others, but primarily from oneself. The price of rationalizing is the hampering, the distortion, and, ultimately, the destruction of one's cognitive faculty. Rationalization is a process not of perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one's emotions.”

GivingRealityOrderProcessEmotionIdentityFitDestructionOneselfExplanationMotiveFacultyJustificationProvidingAttemptingDistortionCognitiveCover Ups
Book:Philosophy: Who Needs It
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“The goal of liberalism is the peaceful cooperation of all men. It aims at peace among nations too. When there is private ownership of the means of production everywhere and when laws, the tribunals and the administration treat foreigners and citizens on equal terms, it is of little importance where a country's frontiers are drawn... War no longer pays; there is no motive for aggression... All nations can coexist peacefully.”

MenMeanLittlesWarCountryLawNationsGoalTermPayCitizensEqualTreatsImportanceAimProductionsPeacefulAdministrationMotiveLiberalismCooperationAggressionOwnershipFrontiersForeignersCoexistTribunals
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“I charge [my sons] never to let the motives of private interest or ambition to influence them to betray, nor the terrors of poverty and disgrace, or the fear of danger or of death deter them from asserting the liberty of their country, and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity those sacred rights to which themselves were born”

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Author:George Mason
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“If... deceit is fundamental to animal communication, then there must be strong selection to spot deception and this ought, in turn, to select for a degree of self-deception, rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as not to betray - by the subtle signs of self-knowledge - the deception being practiced.' Thus, 'the conventional view that natural selection favors nervous systems which produce ever more accurate images of the world must be a very naive view of mental evolution.”

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Author:Robert Trivers
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“In work we act under the predominant motive of external, rational necessities; in pleasure, under the predominant motive of other, equally general necessities of human nature. Rest or recreation is the element in which the personality seeks to renew its strength from these stimuli that exhaust the reserve of human resources. It's an element introduced into life by the person himself.”

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Book:What Is to Be Done?
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“The pleasant life is not produced by continual drinking and dancing, nor sexual intercourse, nor rare dishes of sea food and other delicacies of a luxurious table. On the contrary, it is produced by sober reasoning which examines the motives for every choice and avoidance, driving away beliefs which are the source of mental disturbances.”

Life IsChoicesBeliefSeaSourceTablesDancingDrinkingContraryDrivingMotivePleasantReasoningDishesSoberIntercourseAvoidanceDisturbanceDelicacyLuxuriousDriving Away
Author:Epicurus
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“In a true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. Instead, our companions will be given to us by grace. Often they will be persons who will upset our settled view of self and world. In fact, we might define true community as the place where the person you least want to live with always lives”

WorldWantPersonsSelfFactsMightChoicesGivenCommunityViewsGraceUpsetMotiveCompanionServingOur ChoicesSelf Serving
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“It is not his business to argue men into faith, for that cannot be done; but it is his business to demonstrate the intellectual adequacy of the biblical faith and the comparative inadequacy of its rivals, and to show the invalidity of the criticisms that are brought against it. This he seeks to do, not from any motive of intellectual self-justification, but for the glory of God and His gospel.”

MenSelfDoneShowsIntellectualGloryCriticismArguingMotiveJustificationBiblicalRivalsGlory Of GodInadequacyAdequacySelf JustificationBiblical Faith
Book:Fundamentalism
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