"The most terrible of motives and the most unanswerable of responses: Because."
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Motive quotes
Motive
126 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Motive quotes (page 3 of 7)
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"In the motive lies the good or ill."
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"Actions are visible, though motives are secret."
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"Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?"
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"The key to motivation is motive."
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"I have always examined closely the motives of any group for which I am asked to raise money."
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"We often act treacherously more from weakness than from a fixed motive."
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"As a motive for terror, religion has more often than not required a good deal of lubrication by lucre."
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"... we are most of us brought up in the notion that the highest motive for not doing a wrong is something irrespective of the beings who would suffer the wrong."
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"Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. Even with no motive to be false, it is very hard to say the exact truth."
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"This history of culture will explain to us the motives, the conditions of life, and the thought of the writer or reformer."
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"I am a journalist and have no earthly motives except curiosity and personal vanity."
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"Competition whose motive is merely to compete, to drive some other fellow out, never carries very far."
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"Capitalism started out with a noble and high motive, but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against."
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"Take away the motive, and you take away the sin."
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