Quotessence
Home / Topics / Motive Quotes

Motive Quotes

Browse 1214 quotes about Motive.

Related topics

MenIfsPeopleActionMayThinkingKnowsWorldHumansDesireSelfWantMindNeedsCharacterMeanPersonsReasonDoeHeartUlterior MotiveWayGivingPoliticalEndsProfitShouldMotivationPureInterestWritingBelieveHas BeensSelfishCausesLooksFactsForceWellsEvilIndividualChildrenFeelsFirstsKindMadeProfit MotiveTryingHelpingSometimesTwoBehindsLyingOrderSoulStatesDonePurposeSecretFeelingsInfluenceInspirationalLawMoralPrinciplesRealResultsSpiritEnoughGovernmentJudgingLongUseCrimeDifferentImportantLibertyLittlesSelfish MotivesSelfishnessViewsActivityCommonEffectsIntentionMightSeemsVirtueWarCertainDeedsEconomicFoundLoveLove IsMatterObjectsPleasureStillsWould Bemore

Motive Quotes

“The measure of our rationality determines the degree of vividness with which we appreciate the needs of other life, the extent to which we become conscious of the real character of our own motives and impulses, the ability to harmonize conflicting impulses in our own life and in society, and the capacity to choose adequate means for approved ends.”

NeedsMeanRealEndsCharacterAbilityDegreesConsciousCapacityAppreciateDetermineImpulseMotiveRationalityAdequateApprovedNeeds Of OthersReal CharacterVividnessAdequate Means
Book:Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)
Create image

“In a thousand voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel's "Messiah," it is possible to distinguish the leading voices, but the differences of training and cultivation between them and the voices in the chorus, are lost in the unity of purpose and in the fact that they are all human voices lifted by a high motive.”

HumansFactsPurposeLostVoiceDifferencesThousandSingingTrainingUnityMotiveMessiahChorusCultivationHallelujahHuman VoiceHandelVoice SingingUnity Of Purpose
Book:Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes
Create image

“How frequently is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped With the imputation of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!”

MenLooksHas BeensActionHonestyIntegrityMysteriousGenerousMotiveOblivionSlanderProceedingHonesty And Integrity
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, Sermons, Letters, Etc
Create image

“If 'heartache' sounds exaggerated then surely you have never gone to your garden one rare morning in June to find that the frost, without any perceptible motive, any hope of personal gain, has quietly killed your strawberry blossoms, tomatoes, lima and green beans, corn, squash, cucumbers. A brilliant sun is now smiling at this disaster with an insenstive cheerfulness as out of place as a funny story would be if someone you loved had just died.”

IfsStoriesWould BeSoundMorningSunGoneGainsGardenDiedGreenBrilliantDisasterHeartacheMotiveGardeningCornJuneBeansCheerfulnessFrostExaggeratedTomatoesOne You LoveStrawberriesSquashCucumbersFunny StoryPersonal GainGreen Beans
Book:How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening
Create image

“Formerly, a nation that broke the peace, did not trouble to try and prove to the world that it was done solely from higher motives. ... Now war has a bad conscience. Now every nation assures us that it is bleeding for a human cause, the fate of which hangs in the balance of its victory ... No nation dares to admit the guilt of blood before the world.”

WorldTryingHumansWarDoneNationsCausesFateTroubleBloodBalanceVictoryHigherProveConscienceGuiltDareBrokeWar Of The WorldsMotiveBleeding
Author:Ellen Key
Create image

“Think not you are charitable if the love of Jesus and His brethren be not purely the motive of your gifts. Alas! you might not give your superfluities, but "bestow all your goods to feed the poor;" you might even "give your body to be burned" for them, and yet be utterly destitute of charity, if self-seeking, self-pleasing or self-ends guide you; and guide you they must, until the love of God be by the Holy Ghost shed abroad in your heart.”

IfsThinkingGivingHeartEndsSelfBodyMightJesusPoorHolyCharitySeekingGuidesYour BodyGhostGod LoveMotiveGoodsShedBurnedAlasHoly GhostCharitableBrethrenDestitute
Author:Hugh Reginald Haweis
Create image

“Learning is not virtue but the means to bring us an acquaintance with it. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Let these be your motives to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of frauds, the defeat of oppression, and diffusion of happiness.”

MeanActionVirtueDangerousIntegrityWeakDefeatOppressionUselessMotiveReliefFraudAcquaintanceDetectionDiffusion
Book:The papers of General Nathanael Greene
Create image

“One interesting feature of criticism is seen in the ease with which it discovers what Addison called the specific quality of an author. In Livy, it will be the manner of telling the story; in Sallust, personal identification with the character; in Tacitus, the analysis of the deed into its motive. If the same test be applied to painters, it will find the prominent faculty of Correggio to be manifested in harmony of effect; of Poussin, in the sentiment of his landscapes; and of Raffaelle, in the general comprehension of his subject.”

IfsCharacterStoriesInterestingQualitySubjectsEffectsCriticismTestsHarmonyDeedsPainterLandscapeEaseFeaturesAnalysisMotiveFacultySentimentsComprehensionIdentificationProminent
Author:Robert Aris Willmott
Create image

“I value science--none can prize it more, It gives ten thousand motives to adore: Be it religious, as it ought to be, The heart it humbles, and it bows the knee.”

GivingHeartScienceValuesReligiousOughtThousandTenKneesMotivePrizeBowsAdore
Book:The Microcosm: A Poem, Read Before the Medical Society of New Jersey at Its Centenary Anniversary: with the Address Delivered as President, Jan. 24, 1866
Create image

“But weightier still are the contentment which comes from work well done, the sense of the value of science for its own sake, insatiable curiosity, and, above all, the pleasure of masterly performance and of the chase. These are the effective forces which move the scientist. The first condition for the progress of science is to bring them into play.”

FirstsWellsStillsDonePlayMovingScienceValuesForcePleasureProgressConditionsPerformancesScientistCuriositySakeMotiveContentmentWell DoneInsatiableWork Well Done
Author:Lawrence Joseph Henderson
Create image

“We're always projecting our moral categories on things. I think that's inevitable. But capitalism places no particular value on morality. Morality in the market is enforced by contract and regulation and law, because morality is understood to be in conflict with the motive force of greed and accumulation.”

ThinkingLawValuesForceMoralParticularMoralityConflictUnderstoodCapitalismGreedInevitableMotiveContractsCategoriesRegulationAccumulation
Author:Michael Pollan
Create image

“There are novels that end well, but in between there are human beings acting like human beings. And human beings are not perfect. All of the motives a human being may have, which are mixed, that's the novelists' materials. That's where they have to go. And a lot of that just isn't pretty. We like to think of ourselves as really, really good people. But look in the mirror. Really look. Look at your own mixed motives. And then multiply that.”

PeopleThinkingHumansWellsLooksMayEndsHuman BeingsPerfectActingNovelMaterialsMirrorsNovelistsMotiveGood PeopleNot Perfect
Author:Margaret Atwood
Create image

“Like all passions, anger has degrees, ascending from slight vexation through deepening clouds to rage, and finally to fury, which is a black and horrible tempest. In its mid-region, where it is neither too little to be motive nor too furious to be ungovernable, it has usefulness. For all feeling is as fuel, and where there is none life has no fire, and then no flame of ascent.”

LittlesFeelingsPassionBlackFireDegreesAngerCloudsRageHorribleFlamesMotiveFuelRegionsFuryUsefulnessFuriousTempestAscentVexationAscending
Author:James Vila Blake
Create image

“Apart from selfish reasons, such as fear of punishments, fear of blame, of dishonour, etc, there remains only two motives that can stop (or prevent, "empâecher", Fr.) men from acting badly; the natural sense of commiseration (or "sympathy", - "commisération", Fr.) for one's fellow men - compassion, and the influence of education, by association of ideas ("par l'association d'idées", Fr.) - habit.”

MenTwoIdeasReasonNaturalActingCompassionInfluenceHabitFellowsBlameRemainsSelfishPunishmentMotiveEtcAssociationFellow ManRationsDishonourSelfish ReasonsActing Badly
Author:African Spir
Create image

“Animated by Christian motives and directed to Christian ends, it shall in no wise go unrewarded: here, by the testimony of an approving conscience; hereafter, by the benediction of our blessed Redeemer, and a brighter inheritance his Father's house.”

EndsChristianFatherHouseWiseConscienceBlessedMotiveTestimonyInheritanceBrighterAnimatedBenevolenceHereafterRedeemerBenedictionApproving
Book:The Church and her ministrations: discourses
Create image

“It is in the middle classes of society that all the finest feeling, and the most amiable propensities of our nature do principally nourish and abound. For the good opinion of our fellow-men is the strongest though not the purest motive to virtue. The privations of poverty render us too cold and callous, and the privileges of property too arrogant and confidential, to feel; the first places us beneath the influence of opinion--the second, above it.”

MenFeelsFirstsFeelingsOpinionClassPovertyVirtueSocietyInfluenceMiddleColdFellowsPropertyPrivilegeMotiveMiddle ClassStrongestArrogantFinestFellow ManPropensityAmiableCallousConfidentialClasses Of Society
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
Create image

“I will content myself, Mr. Speaker, with those principal motives to union; first, that we are in the rapids and must go on; next that our neighbours will not, on their side, let us rest supinely, even if we could do so from other causes; and thirdly, that by making the united colonies more valuable as an ally to Great Britain, we shall strengthen rather than weaken the imperial connection. (Cheers.”

IfsFirstsNextCausesSidesUnitedGoes OnConnectionsUnionsValuableMotiveBritainCheerAlliesSpeakersPrincipalRapidsNeighbourColonyGreat Britain
Book:Speeches and Addresses Chiefly on the Subject of British-American Union
Create image

“That public virtue which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince; and it became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature; honour and religion.”

DifferentGovernmentStrongInterestHistoryVirtueMembersProsperityImpressionServantMotiveSentimentsRepublicHonourPreservationDefectsInvincibleRoman EmpireLegionFree GovernmentMercenary
Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition
Create image

“The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution.”

MindViewsEnemyHistoryAppreciateDistanceEnthusiasmSecureFlamesMotiveTemperResentmentPersecutionAnimatedRoman EmpirePersecutedDiscerning
Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Create image

“Julian sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits of four score years, had established in the empire. A motive of superstition prevented the execution of the design which Julian had frequently meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem; but he absolutely refused the title of Dominus or Lord, a word which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans, that they no longer remembered its servile and humiliating origin.”

YearsLordHistoryFourDesignHabitEarsWeightPatientFamiliarTitlesRememberedMotiveScoreEmpiresSuperstitionsExecutionSincerelyDespotismRoman EmpireHumiliatingConstantine
Book:The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812
Create image

“Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an edict which was not unworthy of a statesman or a philosopher. He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics.”

WorldChristianHistorySubjectsEqualBenefitsFellowsPhilosopherTitlesMotiveHardshipReignDisturbingStatesmenUnworthyReposeRoman EmpireHereticToleration
Book:THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages
Create image

“There are three things that are the motives of choice and three that are the motives of avoidance; namely, the noble, the expedient, and the pleasant, and their opposites, the base, the harmful, and the painful. Now in respect of all these the good man is likely to go right and the bad to go wrong, but especially in respect of pleasure; for pleasure is common to man with the lower animals, and also it is a concomitant of all the objects of choice, since both the noble and the expedient appear to us pleasant.”

MenChoicesThreePleasureAnimalCommonObjectsOppositesPainfulNobleMotivePleasantGood ManThree ThingsAvoidance
Author:Aristotle
Create image