Quotes About Motives

Obviously, no one can escape the chains of self-interest. It is the same attribute of self-interest that shapes our judgments.

The genius may appear selfish, but most of his intentions are always innocent and pure.

We ought to understand the personalities and motives of an individual before we come to judge him.

Postmodernism started out seeking to unmask the implicit imperialism of modernist worldviews. But it has itself become imperialist, insisting that postmodernists alone have the ability to see through everyone else's underlying interests and motives—to deconstruct and debunk them.

Good and evil." I chuckle under my breath. "Such binary thinking. So simplistic. So boring. Everything is shades of gray, Emery. There is no such thing as good people or evil people. There are simply people. And some of us are willing to do whatever it takes to get what we want. I don't think you're one of them. Do you understand what I'm telling you?

There are two levers for moving man -- interest and fear.

There are two levers for moving men interest and fear.

What you hear of me is more a reflection of the speaker than the woman spoken of, especially with regard to my motives. No one can speak for another's heart. Certainly no one ever spoke with accuracy for mine!

Take my professional word for it: everybody's got ten good reasons to do away with everybody else. It's just nobody knows how.

everybody's got ten good reasons to do away with everybody else. It's just nobody knows how. Do 'how.

Anna was too old to believe that people always lied for a reason. Mostly they lied because it was easy, felt good, or was habit.

No doubt her uncle had his reasons.

Perhaps a woman has a different kind of measuring stick. For when it might be acceptable, or even necessary, to commit a murder.

He worried that he was destined to be a hobbyist, a dreamer incapable of finishing anything. The fact that the college seemed to encourage this kind of "experimentation" made him doubt its motives as an institution of higher learning.

One attractive thing about me is that I'm never bored, because during any caesura my personal automatic pastime of questioning my own motives is there for me.

no one had been able to give him a reason why people who had excellent reasons to suppose they would destroy themselves if they did a certain thing chose to do that thing anyway.

My actions to promote peace, the mediation missions which I carried out during many conflicts, which very often occurred between brothers of the same country, are not driven by any ulterior motives or any calculations based on personal ambitions.

The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being.

No one can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations—He gives us His teachings which are truths that can only be interpreted by His nature which He places within us. The great wonder of Jesus Christ's salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature—He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well.

The great wonder of Jesus Christ's salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature—He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well.

I never judge people; seemingly bad actions may have good motives, good ones may spring from base and selfish ends.

But war, as we will see, creates its own motives as combat escalates, and it rarely follows a course that does not have unintended consequences that subordinate its original purpose.71

Why is he being so nice? He is friendly--too friendly. No one is nice just for the sake of it these days, not unless he wants something.

those were the subjects that Barber dealt with as a historian, and no matter how scrupulous and profession he was in treating them, there was always a personal motive behind his work, a secret conviction that he was somehow digging into the mysteries of his own life.