Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or calorie, or lightening.
The fundamental motive of true teaching is the love that seeks and studies and performs.
See a person's means. . . Observe his motives. Examine that in which he rests. How can a person conceal his character?
The guiding motive of mankind should be charity towards men, charity towards all animals.
The husband - by primitive instinct partly, certainly by ancient tradition - regards himself as the active partner in matters of love and his own pleasure as legitimately the prime motive for activity.
Tis the motive exalts the action; 'Tis the doing, and not the deed.
The motive, if you are to find inner peace, must be an outgoing motive. Service, of course-service. Giving, not getting. Your motive must be good if your work is to have good effect. The secret of life is being of service.
Man sees your actions, but God your motives.
Men should soon make up their minds to be forgotten, and look about them, or within them, for some higher motive in what they do than the approbation of men, which is fame, namely, their duty; that they should be constantly and quietly at work, each in his sphere, regardless of effects, and leaving their fame to take care of itself.
The distance is nothing when one has a motive.
Believe in something big. Your life is worth a noble motive.
I know it's not strictly sex that accounts for my straying the motive usually attributed to men. I think it's just too tempting to have two lives rather than one. Some people think that too much travel begets infidelity: Separation and opportunity test the bonds of love. I think it's more likely that people who hate to make choices to settle on one thing or another are attracted to travel. Travel doesn't beget a double life. The appeal of the double life begets travel.
The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility.
The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.
Love provides the motive for obeying the commands of the law, but the law provides specific direction for exercising love.
The illegitimate use of a state by economic interests for their own ends is based upon a preexisting illegitimate power of the state to enrich some persons at the expense of others. Eliminate that illegitimate power of giving differential economic benefits and you eliminate or drastically restrict the motive for wanting political influence.
This part of being a man, changing the way we parent, happens only when we want it to. It changes because we are determined for itto change; and the motive for changing often comes out of wanting to be the kind of parent we didn't have.
We rarely do anything with on single motive.
Effort plus motive equals result.
Selfishness is the controlling force of sinful living. It is this motive which pulsates through the natural mind, emotions and will - self-pleasing, self-serving, living for self.