Motive Quotes

782 Motive quotes by 561 unique authors

The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated… — Ayn Rand
The main question ... is not what motive inspired the law, but what it will be possible for men of bad motive to do with… — Benjamin Tucker
My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have... an ambition of… — Richard Rorty
If you are to go to Christ, do not put on your good doings and feelings, or you will get nothing; go in your sins,… — Charles Spurgeon
Sex, a great and mysterious motive force in human life, has indisputably been a subject of absorbing interest to mankind through the ages. — William J. Brennan
Pride takes innumerable forms but has only one end: self-glorification. That’s the motive and ultimate purpose of pride—to rob God of legitimate glory and to… — C. J. Mahaney
Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred, my motives. The… — Jack Ruby
Good motives aside, white condescension does more damage than good. White condescension says to a black child, 'The rules used by other ethnic groups don't… — Larry Elder
As a motive for terror, religion has more often than not required a good deal of lubrication by lucre. — Margaret Thatcher
World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual. — Gore Vidal
I don't think anyone doubts my motives, really. I do what I do and it's not very complicated. Of course, you might hate the music… — Sophie Ellis Bextor
Motivation is motive in action. — Denis Waitley
Some people are born with a vital and responsive energy. It not only enables them to keep abreast of the times; it qualifies them to… — Kate Chopin
I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their… — William H. Seward
With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives… — Thorstein Veblen
Men killing other men really is an extraordinary phenomenon. Why does it happen? And how long has it gone on? And have the motives changed? — John Keegan
The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy. — Carl Schmitt
Let there be no inscription upon my tomb. Let no man write my epitaph. No man can write my epitaph. I am here ready to… — Robert Emmet
Give a good deed the credit of a good motive; and give an evil deed the benefit of the doubt. — Brander Matthews
People do misinterpret events, especially the meaning of other people’s actions and the motives that lead people to act one way or another. — Paul Ekman
I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find… — Fred Hoyle
The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences. — Maria Montessori
Life always take on the character of its motive. — J. G. Holland
..the establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive that induced me to the field of battle. — George Washington
Knowing has two poles, and they are always poles apart: carnal knowing, the laying on of hands, the hanging of the fact by head or… — William H. Gass

Who Wrote These Motive Quotes

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