Motive Quotes

782 Motive quotes by 561 unique authors

We'll choose knowledge no matter what, we'll maim ourselves in the process, we'll stick our hands into the flames for it if necessary. Curiosity is… — Margaret Atwood
These illustrations suggest four general maxims[...]. The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself. The second… — Bertrand Russell
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. — Mother Teresa
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work… — Albert Einstein
Competition whose motive is merely to compete, to drive some other fellow out, never carries very far. — Henry Ford
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… — Calvin Coolidge
History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten. ...What is interesting is brought forward as if it had been central and… — George Santayana
He who has conferred a benefit on anyone from motives of love or honor will feel pain, if he sees that the benefit is received… — Aristotle
No particular motive for living, except the custom and habit of it. — William Makepeace Thackeray
In morals, what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion, what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle… — Anna Brownell Jameson
It is difficult to find a reputable American historian who will acknowledge the crude fact that a Franklin Roosevelt, say, wanted to be President merely… — Gore Vidal
The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives. — Mahatma Gandhi
The human moral sense can excuse any atrocity in the minds of those who commit it, and it furnishes them with motives for acts of… — Steven Pinker
Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger, or more intelligent than a fellow being… — Albert Einstein
Honesty has a beautiful and refreshing simplicity about it. No ulterior motives. No hidden meanings. An absence of hypocrisy, duplicity, political games, and verbal superficiality.… — Charles R. Swindoll
Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavor and human creations. — Albert Einstein
A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, boundless patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his country. — Frederick Douglass
It is the misfortune of all miscellaneous political combinations, that with the purest motives of their more generous members are ever mixed the most sordid… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
So our building of the visible Church becomes much like any natural business function, using natural means and natural motives. — Francis Schaeffer
One who faces and who fears the right things and from the right motive, in the right way and at the right time, posseses character… — Aristotle
Every one knows that the heavenly bodies move in certain paths in relation to each other with seeming consistency and regularity which we call [physical]… — Clarence Darrow
Curiosity is the best motive for writing: curiosity about the world at large, or about oneself. — Michael Korda
I actually think that self-interest is overrated as an all-purpose guide to political motive. It leaves out something at least as powerful and immovable -… — George Packer
The first voyagers to the stars will be creatures whose life cycle is matched to the voyage: the aeons involved in traversing the galaxy are… — Martin Rees
I believe that the human motive to share is very powerful. The human motive to profit is also very powerful, and I think that the… — Tim O'Reilly

Who Wrote These Motive Quotes

561 authors contributed a total of 782 Motive Quotes, led by these top contributors: