Quotes About Motive

We need not seek a cause or a motive or a purpose for that which is, in its nature, eternally self-existent and free.

What was Dr. Mera's motive for murder? I don't need to tell that to a writer of detective novels such as yourself. You know well enough yourself that even without a motive, a murderer lives to kill.

America - a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.

The deeds and motive of man define his personality.

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.

The motive of man depicts his soul.

God knows the motive of every man.

Faith is the power, obedience is the price, love is the motive, the Spirit is the key and Christ is the reason.

Man's responsibility, then, is to choose his destination; the motive power to bring him there is furnished by the Infinite.

Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.

Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s.

The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.

The Light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed The Shadow of Shadows looks on the deed alone.

Well, Sir, we do like to find out who kills people and why.

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that to-day is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.

I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of hurting him if I was going to kill him

If a violent act is violent only in virtue of some antecedent violent intention, it is equally true that an intention to do violence is revealed only when someone acts violently.

People who live according to the pure code of honor are not governed by the profit motive; they are governed by the thymotic urge, the quest for recognition. They seek the sort of glory that can be won only by showing strength in confrontation with death.

perhaps it is the will to please that leads people to crime just as often as evil or greed.

self-preservation has one virtue, which is that it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. With altruism, there's almost always a hidden motive. The benefactor wants to be lionized or, worse, have the person he's helping at his mercy. Otherwise why would people who give money to universities want buildings named after them?

Ambition that centers on the glory of God and welfare of the church is a mighty force for good.

Motives reveal why we do what we do, which is actually more important to God than what we're doing.

The sun alone appears, by virtue of his dignity and power, suited for this motive duty (of moving the planets) and worthy to become the home of God himself.

A lot of times people's main motives and plan in life is to hurt as many people as they can, but I think there's enough good people that help make the world a good place.