Motives Quotes

You are honest enough by nature to be able to see and judge your own self clearly - and that is a great thing. Never lose that honesty, Bobby - always be honest with yourself, know your own motives for what they are, good or bad, make your own decisions firmly and justly - and you will be a fine, strong character, of some real use in this muddled world of ours!

~ Enid Blyton

That's how it's always been: I was always in the clear so long as I was truly guilty. But the minute my motives were honest someone would finger me.

~ Nelson Algren

Often people that tell others they are extremely polite when the situation calls for tact and bluntness are not actually polite people. Instead, they hide behind the word “polite” because they have low self esteem or hidden agendas. Sadly, they impolitely confuse the hell out of everyone, send mixed signals, which then makes people question their sanity and motives.

~ Shannon L. Alder

We reflect God's character the most when we give freely of ourselves with no strings attached, no secret motives, no hidden agenda.

~ Craig Groeschel

Self-interest lies behind all that men do, forming the important motive for all their actions; this rule has never deceived me

~ Marquis De Sade

A man who loves others based solely on how they make him feel, or what they do for him, is really not loving others at all - but loving only himself.

~ Criss Jami

An old advertising maxim says you've got to spell out the benefit of the benefit. In other words, people don't buy quarter-inch drill bits. They buy quarter-inch holes so they can hang their children's pictures.

~ Chip Heath

Resolutely ignoring Banu's dark mutterings, steeling herself against the barrage of harsh words that questioned her motives, her upbringing, and her morality

~ Thrity Umrigar

If I give with the motive to get, regardless of the degree to which that motive besets me, I will walk away impoverished and I will leave those to whom I have given just as impoverished as I have now found myself.

~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

I won't sacrifice my characters morals/intentions/motives for the sake of what I believe is right or wrong. If the action fits the character it will be written. That's that.

~ James Desantis

...our monsters walk the dark pathways of secret motives...

~ John Geddes

I thought my heart was pure. We do like to have such good opinions of our own motives when we're about to do something harmful, to someone else.

~ Margaret Atwood

You are people with a present and with a future. Don't muff the ball. Be excellent.

~ Gordon B. Hinckley

It is not always the motives behind an action that make it noble. Sometimes it is as simple as the action itself.

~ Jocelyn Murray

Finding this, she was much perplexed as to Henchard's motives in opening the matter at all; for in such cases we attribute to an enemy a power of consistent action which we never find in ourselves or or in our friends...

~ Thomas Hardy

Instruction would be wasted on me. Just to give me the form and I'll sign on the dotted line.

~ Evelyn Waugh

Discernment is the son of good judgment and the father of self-control. When mixed with an already clear conscience, the ability to read the true motives of a critic keeps one's conscience both clear and at ease.

~ Criss Jami

People will have their excitements, and a good rousing persecution used to stir things like the burning of Chicago or a Presidential election in our day.

~ E.p. Roe

Not only the right thing is the right thing, but doing the right out of the right motives is the right thing.

~ Kabelo Mabona

Judge behavior, not motives.

~ Miles Anthony Smith

When the minds of men slip from realities to fantasies without thinking of the future consequences, then we must ponder. When the hearts of men are entangled with what though might seem great but yet, specious ambitions without pondering over the resulting footprints, then we ought to take precautions. When the hands of men unwittingly and for the sake of self-gratification find the right weapons and dexterity for the wrong purpose, then massacre and cruelties leave indelible footprints of sorrow and bitterness in the hearts of men. We shall always look back to the footprints of yesterday to say had we know if we don’t take a critical look at today’s footsteps. There is always an alternative that is better than good

~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

~ Earle Brown

We have nothing less to do than to get inside of whole peoples and change their motives and dispositions.

~ John Raleigh Mott