Are you searching for quotes about motives? We’ve compiled a list of the top motivational quotes about motives that will help you understand people’s different motivations and actions, and inspire you to set a positive motivation for your own life. As the great philosopher, Aristotle once said, ‘Pleasure in the job puts perfection in work.‘
Whatever we do in life there is a motive behind it. A motive is nothing but a reason or purpose for doing something. Sometimes motives are the underlying reasons why a person decides to behave in a certain way. They are often related to a person’s values, beliefs, and desires. They can be conscious or unconscious and can be positive or negative.
Read more: 80+ Good Life Quotes To Bring Positivity And Inspiration To Your Day
Ultimately, it is important to reflect on our own motives and ensure that they align with our values and goals. As Confucius advised,
‘It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.’
Some people may have strong motives that drive their actions, while others may be less motivated or may have conflicting motives that influence their behavior. Ultimately, motives play a significant role in shaping an individual’s behavior and decision-making process.
Different types of Motives that a person goes with:
- Social motives: Social motives are those that are influenced by the social environment, such as the desire for love, acceptance, and a sense of belonging.
- Psychological motives: Psychological motives are those which are driven by an individual’s psychological needs, such as the need for self-esteem, security, autonomy, and control.
- Achievement motives: Achievement motives are those which are driven by the need for achievements, such as the need for power, success, and recognition.
- Aesthetic motives: Aesthetic motives are those that are motivated by the desire for beauty, such as the desire for art, music, and literature.
- Materialistic motives: Materialistic motives are those that are motivated by the desire for material possessions, such as the desire for money and status.
- Adventure motives: Adventure motives are those which are driven by the need for exploration and risk-taking, such as the desire to travel and try new things.
Inspiring Quotes on Motives
Motives reveal why we do what we do, which is actually more important to God than what we’re doing. – Joyce Meyer
To live the good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference. – Marcus Aurelius
Bitter people are not interested in what you say, but in what you hide.
People’s behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives.
God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas.
What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.
Men (people) are rarely aware of the real reasons which motivate their actions. ― Edward L. Bernays
The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.
Never judge a man’s actions until you know his motives.
The only motive strong enough to induce men to exercise the self-control required by the religion of Jesus is love.
Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives.
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
Look at the means that a man employs, consider his motives, and observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!
It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
Never complain and never explain.
The most heinous and cruelest crimes in that history have been recorded have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives.
The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.
This history of culture will explain to us the motives, the conditions of life, and the thought of the writer or reformer.
Never ascribe to an opponent’s motives meaner than your own.
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
Pure motives can never justify impure or violent action.
Trust not in Sprites nor the motivations of a Gnome.
Many of our deepest motives come, not from an adult logic of how things work in the world, but out of something that is frozen from childhood.
No man does anything from a single motive.
Distance is nothing when one has a motive. – Jane Austen
When motives are prettily packaged they are much more easily obscured.
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.
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
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.
Believe in something big. Your life is worth a noble motive.
Motives are better than actions. Men drift into crime. Of evil they do more than they contemplate, and of good, they contemplate more than they do.
Why be eager to help someone whose motives are already suspect?
Actions are visible, though motives are secret.
Living en famille provides the strongest motives for rudeness combined with the maximum opportunity for displaying it.
Life always takes on the character of its motive.
We reflect God’s character the most when we give freely of ourselves with no strings attached, no secret motives, and no hidden agenda.
Living en famille provides the strongest motives for rudeness combined with the maximum opportunity for displaying it.
Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives, and often hidden intentions.
If your motives are high and noble and your work is hard and you do a good job, then whatever the task is in your life, it will benefit you.
It’s motive alone that gives character to the actions of men. – Jean De La Bruyere
Love provides the motive for obeying the commands of the law, but the law provides a specific direction for exercising love.
We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.
Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else she is to be a monster.
Caregiving has no second agendas or hidden motives. The care is given from love for the joy of giving without expectation, no strings attached.
It’s motive alone that gives character to the actions of men.
Never ascribe to an opponent’s motives meaner than your own.
An action is essentially good if the motive of the agent is good, regardless of the consequences.
I used to think mothers-in-law are difficult the world over, but on that day I came to understand that they’re simply unknowable.
I am convinced that the majority of people would be generous with selfish motives if they had the opportunity.
Our motives are useless if we don’t start acting it out
We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.
The fundamental motive of true teaching is the love that seeks and studies and performs.
In every bad situation, we have to see Satan’s motives behind a person’s actions.
The mingled incentives which lead to action are often too subtle and lie too deep for us to analyze.
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.
We do a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive. We want to leave the world better than we found it.
The inner thought coming from the heart represents the real motives and desires.
Principles, convictions, and motives are neither sold nor bargained for!
Before impugning an opponent’s motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments.
Prudent men lock up their motives, letting familiars have a key to their hearts, as to their garden.
What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
The Maker knows the motives of men’s hearts.
It’s the Millenium, motives are incidental.
It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
Not only the right thing is the right thing but doing the right thing from the right motives is the right thing.
The thirst for education that comes with the change the gospel brings can be a blessing or a curse, depending on our motives.
For there’s nothing we read of in torture’s inventions, Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.
Do not ever say that the desire to ‘do good’ by force is a good motive. Neither power lust nor stupidity is a good motive.
Not only the right thing is the right thing, but doing the right out of the right motives is the right thing. ― Mabona Kabelo
I try to be cool with everybody, but sometimes, everybody just has different personalities, motives, and different characters.
Pure motives do not insure perfect results.
Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives.
Motives are like little flies flying around in my room. I believe I’ve killed most of them.
We should often blush for our very best actions if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.
It is motive alone that gives real value to the actions of men, and disinterestedness puts the cap on it.
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, makes that and the action fine.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
No one shakes hands without motives, whether, objective or subjective.
The inner thought coming from the heart represents the real motives and desires. These are the cause of action.
No labor is hard, and no time is long, wherein the glory of eternity is the mark we level at.
However much I may sympathize with and admire worthy motives, I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes.
If your motives are high and noble and your work is hard and you do a good job, then whatever the task is in your life, it will benefit you.
In a promise, what you thought, and not what you said, is always to be considered.
We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.
If financial gain remains our main motive then we can be certain that rich fathers will leave behind poor sons!
What we believe to be the motives of our conduct are usually the pretexts for it.
To withdraw me from me has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all.
I don’t want to impugn the motives of my colleagues, but my attitude is, speaking just for me, you either believe in border security or you don’t.
Never complain and never explain.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
One who faces and who fears the right things and from the right motive, in the right way and at the right time, possesses character worthy of our trust and admiration.
You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of false motives.
