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Motive Quotes

Browse 1214 quotes about Motive.

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Motive Quotes

“Ardent desire for knowledge, in fact, is the one motive attracting and supporting investigators in their efforts; and just this knowledge, really grasped and yet always flying before them, becomes at once their sole torment and their sole happiness. Those who do not know the torment of the unknown cannot have the joy of discovery which is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel.”

KnowsMenFeelsMindFactsScienceJoyDesireEffortKnowledgeDiscoveryFlyingMotiveSoleTormentArdentInvestigatorsDesire For Knowledge
Book:An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine
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“To be beneficent when we can is a duty; and besides this, there are many minds so sympathetically constituted that, without any other motive of vanity or self-interest, they find a pleasure in spreading joy around them, and can take delight in the satisfaction of others so far as it is their own work. But I maintain that in such a case an action of this kind, however proper, however amiable it may be, has nevertheless no true moral worth, but is on a level with other inclinations. . . . For the maxim lacks the moral import, namely, that such actions be done from duty, not from inclination.”

MindKindMaySelfDoneActionJoyInterestWorkPleasureLevelsMoralCasesDutySatisfactionDelightVanityMotiveNeverthelessMaximsInclinationSelf InterestImportsAmiable
Book:Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals
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“The ruthless economic exploitation and political oppression of the peasants by the landlord class forced them into numerous uprisings against its rule.... It was the class struggles of the peasants, the peasant uprisings and peasant wars that constituted the real motive force of historical development in Chinese feudal society.”

WarRealPoliticalForceClassStruggleEconomicDevelopmentHistoricalOppressionChineseMotiveExploitationRuthlessPeasantsUprisingClass StruggleLandlordPolitical OppressionClasses Of Society
Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“To accept struggle as part of life, to accept all of it, even the darkest moments of anguish; to be motivated by love rather than fear, by confidence rather than insecurity: these are the benchmarks of high self-esteem. The wish to avoid fear and pain is not the motive that drives the lives of highly evolved men and women; rather, it is the life force within them, thrusting toward its unique form of expression-the actualization of personal values.”

MenSelfMomentsPainFormValuesForceWishAcceptingStruggleSelf EsteemExpressionUniqueMen And WomenAdversityEsteemMotiveInsecurityMotivatedAnguishParts Of LifeActualizationHigh Self EsteemPersonal Values
Book:Nathaniel Brandens Self-Esteem Every Day: Reflections on Self-Esteem and Spirituality
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“The wind, as a direct motive power, is wholly inapplicable to a system of machine labour, for during a calm season the whole business of the country would be thrown out of gear. Before the era of steam-engines, windmills were tried for draining mines; but though they were powerful machines, they were very irregular, so that in a long tract of calm weather the mines were drowned, and all the workmen thrown idle.”

LongCountryWholeWould BePowerfulMinesWindDirectMachinesSeasonsCalmWeatherErasMotiveThrownLabourEnginesIdleGearsSteamWorkmenDrainingWindmillsSteam Engines
Book:The coal question: an enquiry concerning the progress of the Nation, and the probable exhaustion of our coal-mines
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“I suspect it is for one’s self-interest that one looks at one’s surroundings and one’s self. This search is personally born and is indeed my reason and motive for making photographs. The camera is not merely a reflecting pool and the photographs are not exactly the mirror, mirror on the wall that speaks with a twisted tongue. Witness is borne and puzzles come together at the photographic moment which is very simple and complete. The mind-finger presses the release on the silly machine and it stops time and holds what its jaws can encompass and what the light will stain.”

MindLooksSelfReasonMomentsLightTogetherSpeakInterestBornSimpleWallMachinesMirrorsCamerasPressesFingersPhotographTongueSillyReleaseWitnessMotiveSuspectsPoolPuzzlesSurroundingsTwistedReflectingSelf InterestStainsStop TimeMirror Mirror On The Wall
Author:Lee Friedlander
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“One of the great tragedies we witness almost daily is the tragedy of men of high aim and low achievement. Their motives are noble. Their proclaimed ambition is praiseworthy. Their capacity to achieve is great. But their discipline is weak. They succumb to indolence. Appetite robs them of will.”

MenAchieveDisciplineAchievementAmbitionLowsCapacityWeakTragedyAimNobleWitnessMotiveAppetiteSelf DisciplineIndolencePraiseworthyGreat Tragedy
Author:Gordon B. Hinckley
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“...we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.”

HumansChildrenDoeMadeProcessNaturalHuman BeingsVirtueEnvironmentTeacherSpecialListeningActivityTasksExperienceSeriesMotiveMontessori
Author:Maria Montessori
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“If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men's failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal's natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle?”

IfsMenNaturalPleasureRichFailingFashionTasteFortuneCriminalsIncomeTemptationMortalsMotiveParksIdlePeersCastlesSplendidRich ManAllowanceVoluptuousCourtiers
Book:Miscellanies: The four Georges. The English humorists. Roundabout papers
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“Obviously, Jews gain certain advantages by promoting the Holocaust idea. It inspires tremendous financial aid for Israel. It makes organized Jewry almost immune from criticism. Whether the Holocaust is real or not, the Jews clearly have a motive for fostering the idea that it occurred. Not only do they have a motive, but they have the means with the media domination they now hold.”

MeanIdeasRealCertainMediaInspireGainsAdvantageCriticismFinancialJewIsraelAidsMotiveOrganizedHolocaustDominationPromotingImmuneKu Klux KlanFosteringFinancial Aid
Author:David Duke
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“Liberals and leftists have been dismissing inconvenient facts by attacking motives for generations. In the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, Soviet spies and abettors attacked the motives of their accusers because the fact of their guilt was undeniable. In the 1960s, over a thousand psychiatrists who'd never even met Barry Goldwater signed a petition saying the GOP candidate was too mentally unstable to be president.”

Has BeensFactsPoliticsPresidentGenerationsMetsThousandGuiltMotiveCandidatesSovietSpy1960sAttackingPsychiatristUnstable1930sInconvenientLeftistsPetitionsGopAccusers
Author:Jonah Goldberg
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“When they can't win a debate (can they ever?), leftists deploy what the late novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand called the argument from intimidation. Instead of trying to refute the other side, they label their opponents' position evil, attribute sinister motives to its adherents, and charge that its proponents are encouraging violence.”

TryingEvilPoliticsWinningSidesViolencePositionLateArgumentPhilosopherDebateLabelsNovelistsOpponentsMotiveAttributesIntimidationSinisterLeftistsCan't Win
Author:Don Feder
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“The power generated of ten minds for good is superior to that of ten thousand minds acting on a lower motive. But it is a silent power. It moves in mysterious ways. It is noiseless. It makes no show of open opposition. It uses no methods of effort through tongue or arm or physical force.”

WayMindUseShowsMovingForceEffortActingArmsThousandTenGoodnessMethodSilentTongueSuperiorsMysteriousMotiveOppositionPhysical ForceMysterious WaysSilent Power
Book:Your Forces And How To Use Them (Complete Annotated Edition)
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“In my opinion, the form of Government may be different in different countries, according to their circumstances, their wishes, their wants. England loves her Queen, and has full motive to do so.”

WantMayDifferentCountryGovernmentFormWishOpinionCircumstancesEnglandQueensMotiveForms Of GovernmentDifferent Countries
Book:Authentic Life of ... Louis Kossuth ... With a full Report of his Speeches delivered in England ... To which is added his Address to the People of the United States of America
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“For undemocratic reasons and for motives not of State, they arrive at their conclusions, largely inarticulate. Being void of self-expression they confide their views to none; but sometimes in a smoking room, one learns why things were done.”

SelfSometimesStatesReasonDoneScienceRoomsViewsExpressionScientistConclusionMotiveSmokingVoidSelf ExpressionCigarInarticulateSmoking Cigars
Book:Rudyard Kipling: The Complete Verse
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“What a country wants to make it richer is never consumption, but production. Where there is the latter, we may be sure that there is no want of the former. To produce, implies that the producer de_sires to consume; why else should he give himself useless labor? He may not wish to consume what he himself produces, but his motive for producing and selling is the desire to buy. Therefore, if the producers generally produce and sell more and more, they certainly also buy more and more.”

IfsWantGivingShouldMayCountryDesireWishProduceLaborSellsProductionsSellingProducersFormerUselessMotiveLatterConsumptionConsumerism
Book:Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy
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