If your motives aren't clean, money itself becomes evil. But When we don't have money enough evil, the world tells us we're losers. So what determines our place in society is not how much kindness is in our hearts but how much evil is in our wallet.
Usually I just let my songs do the talking. As a matter of fact I have long had an aversion to celebrities endorsing politics, and in some cases even other causes. I wonder about their motives. And I have to admit when celebrities get involved in political campaigns I tend to get a little bit sarcastic about it.
One must know ones enemy as he is, not as one, for whatever motives, wishes him to be.
The fear of punishment may be necessary to the suppression of vice; but it also suspends the finer motives of virtue.
Of all the joyous motives of school life, the love of knowledge is the only abiding one; the only one which determines the scale, so to speak, upon which the person will hereafter live.
Never judge a man's actions until you know his motives
Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat.
Apart from selfish reasons, such as fear of punishments, fear of blame, of dishonour, etc, there remains only two motives that can stop (or prevent, "empâecher", Fr. ) men from acting badly; the natural sense of commiseration (or "sympathy", - "commisération", Fr. ) for one's fellow men - compassion, and the influence of education, by association of ideas ("par l'association d'idées", Fr. ) - habit.
It is more important to understand the ground of your own behavior than to understand the motives of another.
World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.
You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can’t get me out of the story. I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it.
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.
Discernment is the son of good judgment and the father of self-control. When mixed with an already clear conscience, the ability to read the true motives of a critic keeps one's conscience both clear and at ease.
Humanity is made up of an infinity of different individuals. Each of us travels for motives exclusively his own.
It is remarkable how I am never quite clear about the motives for any of my decisions. Is that a sign of confusion or inner dishonesty or is it a sign that we are guided without our knowing or is it both. . . The reasons one gives for an action to others and to one's self are certainly inadequate. One can give a reason for everything. In the last resort one acts from a level which remains hidden from us. So one can only ask God to judge us and to forgive us. . . . At the end of the day I can only ask God to give a merciful judgement on today and all its decisions. It is now in his hand.
What we believe to be the motives of our conduct are usually but the pretexts for it.
My means are sane, my motives and my object mad.
We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.
The history of all times and nations teaches us that exactly in the naïve, unshakable belief, furnished by religion in active life of believers, originate the most intense motives for the most significant creative performance, not only in the field of arts and sciences but also in politics.
Never question another man's motive. His wisdom, yes, but not his motives.