Motive Quotes

Where there is no emotion,
there is no motive for violence.
- the character Spock in the Star Trek television series

Related topics: Life Human-Nature Psychology Wisdom

The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives,
everything he does becomes tainted.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting
on his past actions and their motives -
of approving of some and disapproving of others.
- Charles Darwin

"Mother Teresa Prayer"
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
... Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
... Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
... Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
... Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
... Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
... Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
... Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
... Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
We can do no great things - only small things with great love.
- although commonly attributed to Mother Teresa,
who kept a copy of this prayer on
the wall of her Calcutta orphanage,
this prayer was actually written by Kent Keith.

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Dare to dream of your great success.
Become intimate with those things
which deeply motivate you
and regularly work toward
the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

To succeed, you need to find
something to hold on to,
something to motivate you,
something to inspire you.
- Tony Dorsett

Keep busy - with tasks that inspire you,
motivate you, or please you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

People often say that motivation doesn't last.
Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.
- Zig Ziglar

A person acting from a motivation
of contribution and service
rises to such a level of moral authority
that worldly success is a natural result.
- Marianne Williamson

Motivation is the art of getting people to do
what you want them to do because they want to do it.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

I find motivation and inspiration and hope in information.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

In the new economy, information, education,
and motivation are everything.
- William J. Clinton

People are stupid;
given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything.
Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie
because they want to believe it's true,
or because they are afraid it might be true.
- Terry Goodkind

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains,
at the huge waves of the sea,
at the long courses of rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars;
and they pass by themselves without wondering.
- St. Augustine

Revenge... is like a rolling stone,
which, when a man hath forced up a hill,
will return upon him with a greater violence,
and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.
- Albert Schweitzer

Anyone can heal who believes that he can
and will take the time to put that belief into motion.
- Ernest Holmes

Time has been transformed, and we have changed;
it has advanced and set us in motion;
it has unveiled its face,
inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.
- Khalil Gibran

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.
- Isaac Newton
(discoverer of the laws of gravitation and motion,
famous mathematician, and perhaps the greatest scientist ever)

People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

People that seem so glorious are all show;
underneath they are like everyone else.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

To the people who love you,
you are beautiful already.
This is not because they're
blind to your shortcomings
but because they so clearly see your soul.
- Victoria Moran

Fear defeats more people than
any other one thing in the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowing your own darkness is the best method
for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
- Carl Jung

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
- Mother Teresa

People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget
how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou

When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.
- Dale Carnegie

You can't stop the music, nobody can stop the music.
- Village People

A common denominator of all religions is that
they have the power to bring out the best and the worst in people.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whenever you're in conflict with someone,
there is one factor that can make the difference
between damaging your relationship and deepening it.
That factor is attitude.
- William James

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles;
but today it means getting along with people.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world.
For, indeed, that's all who ever have.
- Margaret Mead

A leader is best when people barely know he exists;
when his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
they will say: we did it ourselves.
- Lao Tzu

It is only in adventure that some people
succeed in knowing themselves -
in finding themselves.
- Andre Gide

You manage things, you lead people.
- Grace Hopper

Success seems to be connected with action.
Successful people keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
- Conrad Hilton

I can't understand why people
are frightened by new ideas.
I'm frightened of old ones.
- John Cage

The meeting of two personalities is
like the contact of two chemical substances:
if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
- Carl Jung

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand;
they listen with the intent to reply.
- Stephen R. Covey

Instead of worrying about what people say of you,
why not spend time trying to accomplish
something they will admire.
- Dale Carnegie

By not caring too much about what people think,
I'm able to think for myself
and propagate ideas which are very often unpopular.
And I succeed.
- Albert Ellis

If a million people say a foolish thing,
it is still a foolish thing.
- Anatole France

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west;
people create distinctions out of their own minds
and then believe them to be true.
- The Buddha

If only the people who worry about their liabilities
would think about the riches they do possess,
they would stop worrying.
- Dale Carnegie

Opportunity is missed by most people
because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- Thomas Edison

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression
and cruelty by the bad people
but the silence over that by the good people.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

What old people say you cannot do,
you try and find that you can.
Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
- Henry David Thoreau

People rarely succeed unless they
have fun in what they are doing.
- Dale Carnegie

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
- Mother Teresa

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better
to displease the people by doing what you know is right,
than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
- William J. H. Boetcker

Watch what people are cynical about,
and one can often discover what they lack.
- George S. Patton

People generally complain about only two things:
when they have less than yesterday,
and when they have less than their neighbor.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Too many people overvalue what they are not,
and undervalue what they are.
- Malcolm S. Forbes

Most people don't CHOOSE their value system -
they simply inherit the beliefs of their parents and community.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Ninety-nine percent of the failures
come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
- George Washington Carver

Things turn out best for the people
who make the best of the way things turn out.
- Art Linkletter

People are just as happy
as they make up their minds to be.
- Abraham Lincoln

Some people care too much. I think it's called love.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

The most common way people give up their power
is by thinking they don't have any.
- Alice Walker

People in their handlings of affairs
often fail when they are about to succeed.
If one remains as careful at the end
as he was at the beginning,
there will be no failure.
- Lao Tzu

The great pleasure in life is doing
what people say you cannot do.
- Walter Bagehot

In spite of everything, I still believe
that people are really good at heart.
I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation
consisting of confusion, misery and death.
- Anne Frank

I believe that everything happens for a reason.
People change so that you can learn to let go,
things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right,
you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself,
and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
- Marilyn Monroe

Go to the people
Live among them
Learn from them
Love them
Serve them
Plan with them
Start with what they know
Build on what they have.
- Jimmy Yen (Y. C. James Yen)

I must dedicate my life to teaching my people,
for only education would make their lot less bitter,
their latent power more strong.
- Jimmy Yen

Don't try to manage people;
You manage things; You lead people.
- Grace Hopper

If you look for the bad in people
expecting to find it, you surely will.
- Abraham Lincoln

You can fool all the people some of the time,
and some of the people all the time,
but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
- Abraham Lincoln (sometimes attributed to P. T. Barnum)

Know that all people are your brothers and sisters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Go to the people and live among them
in order to know them and learn from them.
- Jimmy Yen

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie