Motive Quotes

I really have no ulterior motive in taking on certain roles. I have no larger issue that I really want to show people. I'm an actor, that's all. I just do what I do.

See a person's means ... Observe his motives. Examine that in which he rests. How can a person conceal his character?

The motive of success is not enough.

No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it.

It's so easy to become a grumbler, someone who condemns and carps at everything on principle and sees an ulterior motive behind it.

No game in the world is as tidy and dramatically neat as baseball, with cause and effect, crime and punishment, motive and result, so cleanly defined.

One of the deepest motives (as you are aware) in the human beast (so deep that many have failed to detect it) is Alliteration.

A person who is keen to shake your hand usually has something up his sleeve.

Give a good deed the credit of a good motive; and give an evil deed the benefit of the doubt.

Love is the motive, but justice is the instrument.

It is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were.

The child is a realist in every domain of thought, and it is therefore natural that in the moral sphere he should lay more stress on the external, tangible element than on the hidden motive.

Selfishness, not love, is the actuating motive of the gallant.

Believe in something big. Your life is worth a noble motive.

The guiding motive of mankind should be charity towards men, charity towards all animals.

A saint is a person who does almost everything any other decent person does, only somewhat better and with a totally different motive.

Vanity is truly the motive power that moves humanity, and it is flattery that greases the wheels.

Everybody who talks to a newspaper has a motive. That's just a given. And good reporters always, repeat always, probe to find out what that motive is.

There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.

People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware.

Love provides the motive for obeying the commands of the law, but the law provides specific direction for exercising love.

One cannot live without motives. I have no motives left, and I am living.

Men who just call to say hello generally have ulterior motives.

The noblest motive is the public good.

Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equalled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism.

Pictures are wasted unless the motive power which impelled you to action is strong and stirring.

We can never understand other people's motives, nor their furniture.

If the only motive was to help people who could not afford education, advocates of government involvement would have simply proposed tuition subsidies.

The directing motive, the end and aim of capitalist production, is to extract the greatest possible amount of surplus value, and consequently to exploit labor-power to the greatest possible extent.

Want keeps pace with dignity. Destitute of the lawful means of supporting his rank, his dignity presents a motive for malversation, and his power furnishes the means.

Capitalism encourages entrepreneurs to act with consideration for others even when their ultimate motive is to benefit themselves.

There is no humiliation worse than the consciousness of a wasted life. It stains the spirit, forestalls hope, and destroys any motive for action or change.

The primary motive for good care and good use of the land-community is always going to be affection, which is too often lacking.

I try to be careful with my persuasiveness. When my heart is really behind it, and when I have no ulterior motive, then I know I’m truly persuasive.

True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive.

No one since the Garden of Eden - which the serpent forsook in order to run for higher office - has imputed to politicians great purity of motive.

Man sees your actions, but God your motives.

He is courageous who endures and fears the right thing, for the right motive, in the right way and at the right times.

It is all right when God sends us the approval of our fellow men; however, we must never make that approval a motive in our life.

The main question ... is not what motive inspired the law, but what it will be possible for men of bad motive to do with the law.

Every man without passions has within him no principle of action, nor motive to act.

He who has no passion has no principal or motive to act.

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves.

To truly know God we must long for Him without any other motive than reaching God Himself.

The dog barking at you from behind his master's fence acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of his master when the fence was built.

A wrong motive involves defeat.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

God is His own motive. His love is not drawn out by our loveableness, but wells up, like an artesian spring, from the depths of His nature.