Motives Quotes

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

Numberless arts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.

We should often blush at our noblest deeds if the world were to see all their underlying motives.

Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives.

Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat.

When one has extensively pondered about men, as a career or as a vocation, one sometimes feels nostalgic for primates. At least they do not have ulterior motives.

Pure motives can never justify impure or violent action.

I learned then that practically no one in the world is entirely bad or entirely good, and that motives are often more important than actions.

We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.

We would be ashamed of our best behavior if the people knew the motives of our behaving so.

All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning.

Humans are very seldom either totally sincere or totally hypocritical. Their moods change, their motives are mixed, and they are often quite mistaken as to what their motives are.

We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.

The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate.

There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.

Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?