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Motive Quotes

Browse 1214 quotes about Motive.

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Motive Quotes

“There was a warmth of fury in his last phrases. He meant she loved him more than he her. Perhaps he could not love her. Perhaps she had not in herself that which he wanted. It was the deepest motive of her soul, this self-mistrust. It was so deep she dared neither realise nor acknowledge. Perhaps she was deficient. Like an infinitely subtle shame, it kept her always back. If it were so, she would do without him. She would never let herself want him. She would merely see.”

IfsWantSoulSelfWantedLastsShameAcknowledgePhrasesMotiveSubtleRealisingWarmthFuryMistrustWant Him
Book:The Essential D.H. Lawrence
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“It is an occult law moreover, that no man can rise superior to his individual failings without lifting, be it ever so little, the whole body of which he is an integral part. In the same way no one can sin, nor suffer the effects of sin, alone. In reality, there is no such thing as 'separateness' and the nearest approach to that selfish state which the laws of life permit is in the intent or motive.”

MenWayLittlesStatesWholeBodyRealityLawSufferingIndividualSinFailingEffectsApproachSelfishSuperiorsMotivePermitLiftingOccultInterconnectednessSeparatenessLaws Of Life
Book:The Key to Theosophy by H.P. Blavatsky
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“I had become too accustomed to the pseudo-Left new style, whereby if your opponent thought he had identified your lowest possible motive, he was quite certain that he had isolated the only real one. This vulgar method, which is now the norm and the standard in much non-Left journalism as well, is designed to have the effect of making any noisy moron into a master analyst.”

IfsWellsRealCertainLeftEffectsStyleMastersStandardsMethodJournalismOpponentsMotiveIsolatedLowestNormVulgarAccustomedNoisyMoronAnalystsPseudoReal Ones
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves. We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan.”

MenNeedsFeelsWellsLittlesImportantHardDoneLife IsRealizingBehindsPlansAtheismInfluenceAchievePossibilityDivineAnd LoveAtheistConvictionMotiveGreat MenSkepticWell DoneSustainingUnendingDivine PowerDoubtersLittle FaithWork Well Done
Author:Calvin Coolidge
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“We might have been ready to offer sympathy, but in actuality there were stronger reasons to want to congratulate her for having found such a powerful motive to feel sad. We should have envied her for having located someone without whom she so firmly felt she could not survive, beyond the gate let along in a bare student bedroom in a suburb of Rio. If she had been able to view her situation from a sufficient distance, she might have been able to recognise this as one of the high points in her life.”

IfsWantFeelsShouldHas BeensReasonMightAbleFoundFeltViewsPowerfulSituationStudentsReadyOffersShould HaveStrongerDistanceSufficientMotiveGatesBedroomMight Have BeenRecogniseSuburbsEnviedActualityRioHigh Points
Author:Alain de Botton
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“The motive that impels modern reason to know must be described as the desire to conquer and dominate. For the Greek philosophers and the Fathers of the church, knowing meant something different: it meant knowing in wonder. By knowing or perceiving one participates in the life of the other. Here knowing does not transform the counterpart into the property of the knower; the knower does not appropriate what he knows. On the contrary, he is transformed through sympathy, becoming a participant in what he perceives.”

KnowsDoeDifferentReasonDesireFatherChurchWonderKnowingModernBecomingPropertyPhilosopherContraryConquerPerceiveGreekMotiveAppropriateTransformedParticipantsCounterpartsGreek Philosopher
Author:Jürgen Moltmann
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“Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves to us.”

IfsNeedsMindHumansMayDonePhilosophyFeelingsPainSpiritualForceWishFeltRaceBehindsMovementCreationDevelopmentConcernedLongingSatisfactionHuman RaceMotiveLatterEndeavorExaltedGuise
Book:Ideas and Opinions
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“I know that sometimes people fake on each other out of genuine motives to hold onto the object of their tenderest feelings. They see themselves as so inadequate that they feel forced to wear a mask in order to continuously impress the other. I do not want to "hold" you, I want you to "stay" out of your own need for me.”

PeopleKnowsWantNeedsFeelsSometimesFeelingsOrderObjectsGenuineFakeMotiveMaskI Want YouImpressInadequate
Book:SOUL ON ICE
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“It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more.”

IfsReasonSeemsGoneMotiveTranquilityPropsTranquil
Book:The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives.”

KnowsMindMayActionCertainChildhoodJudgingIntegrityMovedExcellenceAffectionSuperiorsConclusionMotiveCompanionDispositionOur Actions
Book:Annotated Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus with English Grammar Exercises: by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
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“The world is not full of betrayers, it is full of people with decent motives and a full desire to do right by those who know them and love them. This is a little-known truth, but I think it is a truth nonetheless. Empirically, from all the years of my work, I would attest to that. I know it is a miraculous conclusion, but there it is. We like to make strangers of everyone. We are not wolves, but lambs astonished in the margins of the fields by sunlight and summer.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldYearsLittlesDesireKnownFieldsSummerAnd LoveStrangerConclusionMotiveDecentSunlightMiraculousMarginsLambs
Author:Sebastian Barry
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“He felt safe with her. He'd never been safe with another human being, not since he'd been taken as a child from his home. He'd never been able to trust. He could never give that last small piece - all that was left of his humanity - into someone else's keeping. And now there was Rikki. She let him be whatever he had to be to survive. She didn't ask anything of him. There was no hidden motive. No agenda. Just acceptance. She was different - imperfect, or so she thought - and she knew what it was like to fight to carve out a space for herself. She was willing for him to do thar.”

GivingHumansChildrenDifferentHomeAbleLastsHumanityFightingAsksLeftFeltHuman BeingsSpaceTakenPiecesAcceptanceWillingSafeMotiveAgendasImperfectSmall Pieces
Book:Water Bound
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“I felt the sensation of each of the directions I mentally and emotionally turned into amazed at all the possible directions you can take with different motives that come in like it can make you a different person — I’ve often thought of this since childhood of suppose instead of going up Columbus as I usually did I’d turn into Filbert would something happen that at the time is insignificant enough but would be like enough to influence my whole life in the end? — What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?”

PersonsDifferentEndsEnoughWholeHappensWould BeTurnsFeltInfluenceChildhoodStoresWhole LifeMotiveSensationsAmazedInsignificantColumbus
Author:Jack Kerouac
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“It is remarkable how I am never quite clear about the motives for any of my decisions. Is that a sign of confusion or inner dishonesty or is it a sign that we are guided without our knowing or is it both ...The reasons one gives for an action to others and to one's self are certainly inadequate. One can give a reason for everything. In the last resort one acts from a level which remains hidden from us. So one can only ask God to judge us and to forgive us.... At the end of the day I can only ask God to give a merciful judgement on today and all its decisions. It is now in his hand.”

GivingI CanEndsSelfReasonHandsTodayActionLastsAsksDecisionLevelsKnowingClearJudgingRemainsForgivingConfusionJudgementMotiveThe End Of The DayRemarkableResortsDishonestyInadequateMercifulReason For Everything
Author:Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank people will try to cheat you: Be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight: Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous of you: Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten by tomorrow: Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway.”

PeopleIfsWorldLifeInspirationalGivingTryingYearsKindMayEnoughWisdomTodayWinningInspiringEnemySuccessfulHonestBuildingTomorrowSucceedForgottenSelfishBeing HonestJealousyMotiveBe KindJealousFrankSerenityCheatBeing HappyOften IsBeing JealousFranknessUlterior MotiveKind PeopleFalse FriendsSelfish Motives
Author:Mother Teresa
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“We are afraid that Heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that the mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to. There are rewards that do not sully motives. A man's love for a woman is not mercenary because he wants to marry her, nor his love for poetry mercenary because he wants to read it, nor his love of exercise less disinterested because he wants to run and leap and walk. Love, by definition, seeks to enjoy its object.”

IfsMenWantHeartSoulRunningDesireHeavenEnjoyGoalWalksObjectsExerciseOffersPureSafeRewardsDefinitionsMotiveLeapHis LoveBribeDisinterestedMercenary
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“I can't help comparing what I have with Gale to what I'm pretending to have with Peeta. How I never question Gale's motives while I do nothing but doubt the latter's. It's not a fair comparison really. Gale and I were thrown together by a mutual need to survive. Peeta and I know the other's survival means our own death. How do you sidestep that?”

KnowsNeedsMeanI CanHelpingTogetherDoubtSurvivalFairsCompareMotiveThrownLatterComparisonMutualPretendingPeetaGale
Book:The Hunger Games
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“I see. So you playacted the role of a rake who was only pretending to be in earnest, knowing you would come across as though you had the lowest of motives, when in fact, you were sincere?” “Precisely.” She gave a short, wry laugh and shook her head at him. “Convoluted sir! You are a maze.” He shot her a sulky glance. “I thought you were going to say I was amazing.” “That, too,” she admitted with a rueful smile, capturing his square chin between her fingertips.”

FactsRolesLaughingKnowingShotsMotiveSincerePretendingSquaresLowestGlancesEarnestChinsMazesFingertipsRakesWryConvolutedSulkyWry Smile
Book:Lord of Fire
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“Darken your room, shut the door, empty your mind. Yet you are still in great company - the Numen and your Genius with all their media, and your host of elementals and ghosts of your dead loves — are there! They need no light by which to see, no words to speak, no motive to enact except through your own purely formed desire.”

NeedsMindStillsLightDesireSpeakRoomsCompanyDoorsMediaGeniusEmptyGhostMotiveHostElementalsYour RoomGreat Company
Author:Austin Osman Spare
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“Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy.”

MenLittlesDoneCharacterWould BePastJoyCertainValuesNamesCausesSinMistakeTaughtConscienceActiveMotiveEthicalOur FutureWarningOur PastFormationLoathingTaught UsEfficacyMoralistEthical Values
Book:The Penny Dreadfuls: Tales of Horror: Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Picture of Dorian Gray
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“More than my questions about the efficacy of social actions were my questions about my own motives. Do i want social justice for the oppressed or do i jusy want to be known as a socially active person? I spend 95 percent of my time thinking about myself anyway. I dont have to watch the evening news to see the world is bad, i only have to look at myself. I am not brow beating here, i am only saying that true charge , true living giving, God honoring change would have to start with the individual. I was the very problem i had been protesting. I wanted to make a sign that read “I am the problem”

ThinkingWorldWantGivingLooksPersonsProblemActionWantedIndividualSocialJusticeMy OwnKnownWatchesNewsPercentSocial JusticeActiveEveningMotiveMy TimeOppressedBrowsHere I AmEfficacySocial Action
Author:Donald Miller
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“I've learned that the universe doesn't care what our motives are, only our actions. So we should do things that will bring about good, even if there is an element of selfishness involved. Like the kids at my school might join the Key Club or Future Buisness Leaders of America, because it's a social thing and looks good on their record, not because they really want to volunteer at the nursing home. But the people at the nursing home still benefit from it, so it's better that the kids do it than not do it. And if they never did it, then they wouldn't find out that they actually liked it.”

PeopleIfsWantShouldLooksStillsHomeMightCareKidsActionSchoolAmericaUniverseSocialLeaderRecordsKeysInvolvedElementsBenefitsClubsSelfishnessMotiveI've LearnedVolunteerOur ActionsNursingBuisnessNursing Home
Book:13 Gifts
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“In the way that scepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the sceptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.”

IfsWorldWayNeedsTryingHumansRealSometimesFactsFeelingsMightCultureGivenFearHuman BeingsRolesKindnessCasesIssuesAtheismFiguresConcernToolsCriticismRageTendenciesPursueMotiveTemperQuestsSuperstitionsSupporterDeludedBelittlePseudoscienceScepticismScepticConsonantsReal Feelings
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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