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Motive Quotes

Browse 1214 quotes about Motive.

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Motive Quotes

“Maybe, generations ago, young people rebelled out of some clear motive, but now, we know we're rebelling. Between teen movies and sex-ed textbooks we're so ready for our rebellious phase we can't help but feel it's safe, contained. It will turn out all right, despite the risk, snug in the shell of rebellion narrative. Rebellion narrative, does that make sense? It was appropriate to do, so we did it.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsDoeHelpingYoungTurnsSexClearRiskGenerationsReadySafeDespiteNarrativeMake SenseMotiveAppropriateRebellionPhasesShellsRebelliousTextbooks
Author:Daniel Handler
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“There is no cruelty so inexorable and unrelenting as that which proceeds from a bigoted and presumptuous supposition of doing service to God. The victim of the fanatical persecutor will find that the stronger the motives he can urge for mercy are, the weaker will be his chance for obtaining it, for the merit of his destruction will be supposed to rise in value in proportion as it is effected at the expense of every feeling both of justice and of humanity.”

FeelingsValuesHumanityJusticeChanceDestructionMercyStrongerVictimCrueltyMeritMotiveProportionUrgesExpensesFanaticismObtainingInexorablePresumptuousSuppositionUnrelentingService To God
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“But the instinct of hoarding, like all other instincts, tends to become hypertrophied and perverted; and with the institution of private property comes another institution-that of plunder and brigandage. In private life, no motive of action is at present so powerful and so persistent as acquisitiveness, which unlike most other desires, knows no satiety. The average man is rich enough when he has a little more than he has got, and not till then.”

KnowsMenLittlesEnoughActionDesirePowerfulRichInstitutionsPropertyInstinctAverageMotiveConsumerismPersistentPrivate LifePrivate PropertyOverconsumptionPlunderAverage ManHoardingSatiety
Book:Outspoken essays
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“For there's nothing we read of in torture's inventions, Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.”

WellsMotivationIntentionInventionMotiveTortureDunces
Book:Reader! Walk Up at Once (it Will Soon be Too Late) and Buy at a Perfectly Ruinous Rate a Fable for Critics: Or, Better, (I Like, as a Thing that the Reader's First Fancy May Strike, an Old Fashioned Title-page, Such as Presents a Tabular View of the Volume's Contents) a Glance at a Few of Our Literary Progenies (Mrs. Malaprop's Word) from the Tub of Diogenes; a Vocal and Musical Medley
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“The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak hate not wickedness but weakness; and one instance of their hatred of weakness is hatred of self. All the passionate pursuits of the weak are in some degree a striving to escape, blur, or disguise an unwanted self. It is a striving shot through with malice, envy, self-deception, and a host of petty impulses; yet it often culminates in superb achievements.”

SelfHateSacrificeDegreesAchievementSpringWeaknessShotsWeakHatredStrivePassionateDeedsEnvyNoblePursuitInstanceDeceptionImpulseMotiveHostDaringDisguiseSublimeWickednessPettyMaliceSelf DeceptionSelf SacrificeBlurUnwantedQuestionableSuperb
Book:The Ordeal of Change
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“A living creature develops a destructive impulse when it wants to destroy a source of danger... The original motive is not pleasure in destruction... I destroy in a dangerous situation because I want to live and do not want to have any anxiety. In short, the impulse to destroy serves a primary biological will to live.”

WantPleasureSituationDangerousDangerSourceCreaturesAnxietyDestructionOriginalsPrimariesImpulseMotiveDestructiveLiving CreaturesWill To LiveDangerous Situations
Author:Wilhelm Reich
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“When Christianity is received, it stimulates the faculties, and calls forth new ideas, new motives and new sentiments. It has been the mother of all modern education”

Has BeensIdeasMotherChristianityModernMotiveFacultySentimentsNew IdeasModern Education
Book:Christianity and Positivism: A Series of Lectures to the Times on Natural Theology and Apologetics
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“Everyone who comes within the reach of your knowledge is, as it were, on trial in your mind. It is easy to be an unjust, ignorant, and even a merciless judge. The real character of the actions of others depends in great measure on the motives that prompt them, and these motives are unknown to you.”

MindRealCharacterActionMotivationEasyJudgingDependsTrialsIgnorantMotiveUnjustPromptsReal Character
Book:The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time
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“God Almighty created each and every one of use for a place in the world, and for the least of us to think that we were created only to be what we are and not what we can make ourselves, is to impute an improper motive to the Creator for creating is.”

ThinkingWorldUseCreatingCreatorMotiveAlmightyGodlyPlaces In The World
Book:The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Vol. X: Africa for the Africans, 1923–1945
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