Motive Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old motive quotes, motive sayings, and motive proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

A man's motive in the small actions of daily life, like resting a moment on his pitchfork in the sun and listening intently, may be the most important thing about that man. Haniel Long
How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure. William James
We do a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive. We want to leave the world better than we found it. Tim Cook
Men sometimes have strange motives for the things they do. Matthew Hopkins
The only motive strong enough to induce men to exercise the self control required by the religion of Jesus is love. Marion G. Romney
The distance is nothing when one has a motive. Jane Austen
No motive is pure. No one is good or bad-but a hearty mix of both. And sometimes life actually gives to you by taking away. Carrie Fisher
Love provides the motive for obeying the commands of the law, but the law provides specific direction for exercising love. Jerry Bridges
Life always take on the character of its motive. J. G. Holland
The true worth of a soul is revealed as much by the motive it attributes to the actions of others as by its own deeds. John Petit-Senn
It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men. Jean De La Bruyere
The fundamental motive of true teaching is the love that seeks and studies and performs. Robert Grudin
Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Bertrand Russell
The noblest motive is the public good. Virgil
Our motives and thoughts ultimately influence our actions. Dieter F. Uchtdorf
The motive of fear is the be-all and end-all of religion. H. L. Mencken
Pure motives can never justify impure or violent action. Mahatma Gandhi
It is motive alone that gives real value to the actions of men, and disinterestedness puts the cap to it Jean De La Bruyere
One of the strongest motives for wishing to work on yourself is the realization that you may die at any moment - only you must first realize this. G. I. Gurdjieff
A wrong motive involves defeat. Mary Baker Eddy
Motive is never easy. Sometimes it occurs to one only later. John Hawkes
In general, we do well to let an opponent's motives alone. We are seldom just to them. Our own motives on such occasions are often worse than those we assail. W. E. Channing
Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own. John M. Barrie
The motive power is the cause of all life. Leonardo da Vinci
Pure motives do not insure perfect results. Christian Nestell Bovee
An action is essentially good if the motive of the agent be good, regardless of the consequences. Immanuel Kant
The key to motivation is motive. It's the why. It's the deeper yes! burning inside that makes it easier to say no to the less important. Stephen Covey
To exercise some sort of control over others is the secret motive of every selfish person. Wallace D. Wattles
But if we never acted except when we were certain our motives were pure, we would never act at all. C.J. Sansom
People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware. Albert Ellis