It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more.
Take away the motive, and you take away the sin.
And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well By the purification of the motive In the ground of our beseeching
That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
Occasionally we all do wrong things from right motives. Only time can prove us right or wrong. The past is the past. Nothing can change it now, and who is to say that it was all wrong, anyway?
This insistence on "having his say upon the universe" is the profoundest motive of William James thinking as well as of his filial gratitude.
Tis the motive exalts the action; 'Tis the doing, and not the deed.
It's a world in which people's motives are questionable and shadowy.
Watch your motive before God; have no other motive in prayer than to know Him.
Sometimes fear is wholesome and rational; it is well to swing fear as a mighty battle-axe over men's heads when no other motive will move them.
What's stronger-the need to uphold the law, or the motive to turn one's back on it?
Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can.
From a moral point of view, there is no excuse for terrorist acts, regardless of the motive or the situation under which they are carried out.
One of the deepest motives (as you are aware) in the human beast (so deep that many have failed to detect it) is Alliteration.
Clarity, clarity, surely clarity is the most beautiful thing in the world, A limited, limiting clarity I have not and never did have any motive of poetry But to achieve clarity.
We rarely do anything with on single motive.
If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men.
I'm sorry you leftists, you're not the only people whose motives are pure.
Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?
There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives.