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Motive Quotes

Browse 1214 quotes about Motive.

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Motive Quotes

“That was the funniest thing I'd heard in days. You're kidding, right? PLEASE tell me you have a stronger motive for me than 'fair is fair.' Life isn't FAIR, Dean....Nothing is fair, EVER. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I need to help you because FAIR IS FAIR? Try, 'I need you to help me so I won't rip out your spine and beat you with it.' I MIGHT respond to that. MAYBE.”

NeedsTryingHelpingMightHeardPleaseBeatsFairsStrongerMotiveHelp MeNeed YouRipSpineDeanI Need YouStupidest
Author:James Patterson
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“Suicide is a form of murder - premeditated murder. It isn't something you do the first time you think of doing it. It takes getting used to. And you need the means, the opportunity, the motive. A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind.”

ThinkingNeedsMindFirstsMeanStatesFormUsedOpportunitySuccessfulDemandFirst TimeOrganizationMurderSuicideMotiveState Of MindSuicidalGirl InterruptedGood Organization
Author:Susanna Kaysen
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“The dog’s agenda is simple, fathomable, overt: I want. “I want to go out, come in, eat something, lie here, play with that, kiss you. There are no ulterior motives with a dog, no mind games, no second-guessing, no complicated negotiations or bargains, and no guilt trips or grudges if a request is denied.”

IfsWantMindPlayLyingGamesSimpleDogKissingGuiltDenyComplicatedMotiveAgendasDeniedNegotiationRequestBargainsGrudgeGuessingDog LoverMind GamesSecond GuessingI Love My DogUlterior MotiveDog Best FriendGuilt Trip
Book:Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs
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“Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”

IfsScienceSilenceCompassionCourageArgumentDignitySakeExcuseStupiditySelfishGravesPlentyExpertsMotiveSuspectsInvitesArrogantIrrationalDistrustSpectatorsTranscendentSeductiveSubordinatesMammalsUnfairnessGod Is Not GreatLive For Others
Book:Letters to a Young Contrarian
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“I have tried to protect myself against men, to react against their madness to discern its source; I have listened and I have seen--and I have been afraid of acting for the same motives or for any motive whatever, of believing in the same ghosts or in any other ghost, of letting myself be engulfed by the same intoxications or by some other... afraid, in short, of raving in common and of expiring in a horde of ecstasies.”

MenBelieveHas BeensCommonActingSourceProtectMadnessGhostMotiveEcstasyIntoxicationHorde
Author:Emile M. Cioran
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“I could not sit seriously down to write a serious Romance under any other motive than to save my life, & if it were indispensable for me to keep it up & never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No - I must keep my own style & go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.”

PeopleIfsWayShouldWritingFirstsMayRomanceMy OwnLaughingFailingStyleSeriousGoes OnSucceedFinishedConvincedMotiveRelaxChaptersHungIndispensableMy Own Style
Book:My dear Cassandra: the letters of Jane Austen
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“One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”

MenWorldLifeInspirationalArtMotivationalPainDesirePerceptionEverydayPainfulObjectivesMotiveHopelessThought ProvokingStrongestEveryday LifePersonal LifeShiftingArt And ScienceFettersThinking ManPersonal DesireScience Life
Book:Essays in Science
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“Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong and the final decisions are made in silent rooms. Tell him to be different from other people if it comes natural and easy being different. Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives. Let him seek deep for where he is a born natural. Then he may understand Shakespeare and the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov, Michael Faraday and free imaginations Bringing changes into a world resenting change. He will be lonely enough to have time for the work he knows as his own.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWorldMayMadeDifferentEnoughStrongEasyBornImaginationNaturalDecisionRoomsCreativeBrotherSolitudeLonelySilentFinalsSeekingDeeperMotiveLazyBeing DifferentWright BrothersPasteurPavlov
Book:The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg
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“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”

MenMeanDifferentWarEndsActionHappinessDesireCausesViewsStepsObjectsEvery ManMotiveExceptionAvoidingGoing To WarDifferent Views
Book:Pascal's Pensées: Selections
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“When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold I strip off my muddy, sweaty clothes of everyday, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their humanity, reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death; I pass indeed into their world.”

WorldHomeActionRememberHumanityAsksSpeakBornHoursSpaceForgetPovertyStudyFourMinesReturnTasteClothesDressesCourtEveningMotivePalacesThresholdRobesAntiquesMuddyVexationForget The World
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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“It is possible to be honest every day. It is possible to live so that others can trust us-can trust our words, our motives, and our actions. Our examples are vital to those who sit at our feet as well as those who watch from a distance. Our own constant self-improvement will become as a polar star to those within our individual spheres of influence. They will remember longer what they saw in us than what they heard from us. Our attitude, our point of view, can make a tremendous difference.”

WellsSelfActionRememberIndividualStarsDifferencesViewsAttitudeWatchesSawsHeardFeetInfluenceHonestExampleSelf ImprovementConstantDistancePoint Of ViewImprovementBeing HonestMotiveSpheresOur ActionsOur WordsSphere Of Influence
Book:Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes
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“There seems to be a kind of order in the universe…in the movement of the stars and the turning of the Earth and the changing of the seasons. But human life is almost pure chaos. Everyone takes his stance, asserts his own right and feelings, mistaking the motives of others, and his own.”

HumansKindFeelingsSeemsEarthLife IsOrderUniverseStarsMovementPureSeasonsChaosHuman LifeMotiveStanceOne Tree Hill VoiceoverTree HillOne Tree Hill OpeningShort One Tree HillOne Tree Hill LifeOne Tree Hill LoveOne Tree Hill DeathOrder In The Universe
Book:Katherine Anne Porter: Conversations
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“If a man called Christmas Day a mere hypocritical excuse for drunkenness and gluttony, that would be false, but it would have a fact hidden in it somewhere. But when Bernard Shaw says the Christmas Day is only a conspiracy kept up by poulterers and wine merchants from strictly business motives, then he says something which is not so much false as startling and arrestingly foolish. He might as well say that the two sexes were invented by jewellers who wanted to sell wedding rings.”

IfsMenWellsTwoFactsMightWould BeWantedSexSellsWineMereExcuseFoolishRingsChristmasMotiveConspiracyDrunkennessMerchantsHypocriticalChristmas DayGluttonyWedding RingBernard Shaw
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“Don't you think I have sense enough to worry about my motives for saying the prayer? That's exactly what's bothering me so. Just because I'm choosy about what I want - in this case, enlightenment or peace, instead or money or prestige or game or any of those things, doesn't mean I'm not as egotistical and self-seeking as everybody else. If anything, I'm more so!”

IfsThinkingWantMeanSelfEnoughGamesPrayerCasesWorryEnlightenmentSeekingBotherMotivePrestigeEgotisticalChoosy
Author:J. D. Salinger
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“Ah cher ami, how poor in invention men are! They are They always think one commits suicide for a reason. But it's quite possible to commit suicide for two reasons. No, that never occurs to them. So what's the good of dying intentionally, of sacrificing yourself to the idea you want people to have of you? Once you are dead, they will take advantage of it to attribute idiotic or vulgar motives to your action. Martyrs, cher ami, must choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood--never!”

PeopleThinkingMenWantMadeTwoIdeasReasonUseActionPoorSacrificeDyingUnderstoodAdvantageSuicideForgottenInventionCommitMotiveAttributesVulgarMartyrIdioticSacrificing Yourself
Author:Albert Camus
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“The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.”

CrimeBiggerObviousMotive
Book:COLLECTOR’S EDITION – COMPLETE RAFFLES SERIES & SHERLOCK HOLMES ADVENTURES: 60+ Novels & Stories in One Volume (Mystery & Crime Classics): Including The Amateur Cracksman, The Black Mask, A Thief in the Night, Mr. Justice Raffles, Mrs. Raffles, R. Holmes & Co., and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
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“I put my hand out and wiped the vomit from his lips, and cooed soothing words to him. It squeezed my heart to see him suffer like this - but where my genuine concern for him ended and where my self-interest began, I could not tell: no servant can ever tell what the motives of his heart are. "Do we loathe our masters behind a facade of love - or do we love them behind a facade of loathing? "We are made mysteries to ourselves by the Rooster Coop we are locked in.”

HeartMadeSelfHandsSufferingInterestBehindsMysteryMastersMy HeartConcernLipsGenuineServantMotiveLockedSelf InterestLoathingSoothingLoatheFacadeRoostersGenuine Concern
Author:Aravind Adiga
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“How many of us will be saved the pain of seeing the most important things in our lives disappearing from one moment to the next? I don't just mean people, but our ideas and dreams too: we might survive a day, a week, a few years, but we're all condemned to lose. Our body remains alive, yet sooner or later our soul will receive the mortal blow. The perfect crime - for we don't know who murdered our joy, what their motives were, or where the guilty parties are to be found...they too are the victims of the reality they created.”

PeopleKnowsYearsMeanImportantIdeasSoulMomentsDreamBodyRealityMightPainJoyNextFoundLosesPerfectPartyOur LivesAliveSeeingWeekCrimeVictimRemainsImportant ThingsBlowDisappearSavedGuiltyMortalsMotiveSooner Or LaterMean PeopleIdeas And DreamsPerfect Crime
Author:Paulo Coelho
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“The root of the matter is a very simple and old fashioned thing... love or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide for action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty.”

IfsLoveFeelsMatterReasonActionSimpleExistenceCompassionHonestyIntellectualRootsTrue LoveGuidesMotiveOld FashionedImperativesIntellectual Honesty
Book:The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell
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“You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order --or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.”

MenDreamAgeOrderIndividualLeftFreedomPathSacrificeSecurityHumanitarianMotiveConsistentSincerityMaximumAntsTotalitarianismIndividual Freedom
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“How many times do we lose an occasion for soul work by leaping ahead to final solutions without pausing to savor the undertones? We are a radically bottom-line society, eager to act and to end tension, and thus we lose opportunities to know ourselves for our motives and our secrets.”

KnowsSoulEndsOpportunityLosesLinesSecretSolutionsFinalsBottomOccasionsMotiveTensionBottom LinePausingSoul Work
Book:Care of the soul: a guide for cultivating depth and sacredness in everyday life
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“It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.”

PeopleMindFirstsHeartMistakeOne ThingJudgmentForgivingIntentionIllMotiveCover Ups7 HabitsContinuous LearningSeven Habits
Author:Stephen Covey
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“Do you think it makes people nasty to be loved? You know it doesn’t! Then why should it make them nice to be loathed? While you’re being persecuted, you hate what’s happening to you, you hate the people who are making it happen; you’re in a world of hate. Why, you wouldn’t recognize love if you met it! You’d suspect love! You’d think there was something behind it—some motive—some trick.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWorldShouldHappensHateBehindsNiceLove YouMetsHappeningsTricksMotiveSuspectsNastyPersecuted
Book:A single man
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