Motive Quotes

That, to me, is a kind of brilliant environmental ju-jitsu - using the energy of the market and the profit-motive to get businesses to invest in preserving and improving natural systems.

In the temple of science are many mansions ... and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither.

However much we might deplore the profit motive, or consumerist values, if everyone just wants i-Pods we would probably be better off than if they wanted class revolution.

Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing, which remark I guess shows I still don't have a pure motive (O it's-such-fun-I-just-can't-stop-who-cares-if-it's-published-or-read) about writing.

Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.

Selfishness is the controlling force of sinful living. It is this motive which pulsates through the natural mind, emotions and will - self-pleasing, self-serving, living for self.

Motives are causes experienced from within.

How can any Action be meritorious of Praise or Dispraise, Reward or Punishment, when the natural Principle of Self-Love is the only and the irresistible Motive to it?

The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue.

Criminals have means motive and opportunity – Heros do too

Be fair. Don't present your version of the truth to others. Lose your ulterior motives! Be accurate and pure in your presentation of the way, and you will become the way.

A man's motive in the small actions of daily life, like resting a moment on his pitchfork in the sun and listening intently, may be the most important thing about that man.

Compassion being action without motive, without self-interest, without any sense of fear, without any sense of pleasure.

Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatever.

When starting to think about any novel, part of the motive is: I'm going to show them, this time.

I believe absolutely in love being the central motive force of the universe.

The motive power is the cause of all life.

Capitalism is not about the profit motive. Capitalism is about free markets. What you do in the market, in your free will, is the essence of capitalism.

People instinctively know the difference between something done with a profit motive and something done with a love motive.

Never go into business purely to make money. If that's the motive you're better off doing nothing.

The fundamental motive of true teaching is the love that seeks and studies and performs.

Ready are we all to cry out and ascribe motives when our toes are pinched.

I, Alexander B. Campbell, make this statement of the cause of my death to relieve the coroner of the necessity of an inquest, and also let my friends know the motive that led me to take my own life.

Almost all education has a political motive.

Vanity is a motive of immense potency.

The desire for legitimate offspring is, in fact, according to the Catholic Church, the only motive which can justify sexual intercourse.

All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.... This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.

If God were a Kantian, who would not have us till we came to Him from the purest and best motives, who could be saved?

To take pride in a library kills it. Then, its motive power shifts over to the critical if admiring visitor, and apologies are necessary and acceptable and the fat is in the fire.

You have to give everyone ugly motives for everything they do, because ugly motives are all you understand.

It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more.

We in America count on the profit motive to get people to do the right thing. That's our basic American notion when it comes to business.

Motivation is motive in action.

Everyone is motivated a little or a lot to do something or nothing. Motivation is the internalized drive toward the dominant thought of the moment. By definition, motivation is "motive in action."

There are moments when the inner life actually 'pays,' when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use.

I have to know the killer, the victim and the motive when I begin. Then I start to create the characters and see how the novel takes shape based on what these people are like.

There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives.

Love is the spirit that motivates the artist's journey. The love may sublime, raw, obsessive, passionate, awful. or thrilling, but whatever its quality, it's a powerful motive in the artist's life.

No matter how brilliant an action, it should not be considered great unless it was the result of a great motive.

We often act treacherously more from weakness than from a fixed motive.

A supreme love, a motive that gives a sublime rhythm to a woman's life, and exalts habit into partnership with the soul's highest needs, is not to be had where and how she wills.

... we are most of us brought up in the notion that the highest motive for not doing a wrong is something irrespective of the beings who would suffer the wrong.

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. Even with no motive to be false, it is very hard to say the exact truth.

I am suspicious without a motive, and jealous without love; although I feel I ought to love since I desire to be loved.

[You write out of the] desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, etc., etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive and a strong one.

I am a journalist and have no earthly motives except curiosity and personal vanity.

The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate.

The overcoming of adversity and, ultimately, denying it the rite of passage, has been a constant and perpetual motive throughout my life.

The thirst for education that comes with the change the gospel brings can be a blessing or a curse, depending on our motives.

Competition whose motive is merely to compete, to drive some other fellow out, never carries very far.