Motives Quotes
These are some of the best 'Motives' quotations and sayings.
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God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas.
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Great actions, the luster of which dazzles us, are represented by politicians as the effects of deep design; whereas they are commonly the effects of caprice and passion. Thus the war between Augustus and Antony, supposed to be owing to their ambition to give a master to the world, arose probably from jealousy.
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He that does good for good's sake seeks neither paradise nor reward, but he is sure of both in the end.
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However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great and good motive.
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In the eye of that Supreme Being to whom our whole internal frame is uncovered, motives and dispositions hold the place of actions.
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It is motive alone that gives character to the actions of men.
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It is not the incense, or the offering which is acceptable to God, but the purity and devotion of the worshiper.
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Many actions, like the Rhone, have two sources: one pure, the other impure.
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Motives are better than actions. Men drift into crime. Of evil they do more than they contemplate, and of good they contemplate more than they do.
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Motives imply weakness, and the existence of evil and temptation. - Angelic natures would act from impulse alone.
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Our best conjectures, as to the true spring of actions, are very uncertain; the actions themselves are all we know from history. That Csesar was murdered by twenty-four conspirators, I doubt not; but I very much doubt whether their love of liberty was the sole cause.
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The morality of an action depends upon the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar with intention to break his head, and he picks it up and buys victuals with it, the physical effect is good; but with respect to me, the action is very wrong.
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The noblest motive is the public good.
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The true motives of our actions, like the real pipes of an organ, are usually concealed; but the gilded and hollow pretext is pompously placed in the front for show.
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The two great movers of the human mind are the desire of good, and the fear of evil.
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We must not inquire too curiously into motives. They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.
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We should often have reason to be ashamed of our most brilliant actions if the world could see the motives from which they spring.
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Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or caloric, or lightning.
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