Quotes about motives

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

— Marcus Aurelius

Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.

— Sir James M. Barrie

We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.

— Lord Byron

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

— George Eliot

A person who is keen to shake your hand usually has something up his sleeve.

— Sir Alec Guiness

To read between the lines was easier than to follow the text.

— Henry James

We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives behind them.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There's an enduring American compulsion to be on the side of the angels. Expediency alone has never been an adequate American reason for doing anything. When actions are judged, they go before the bar of God, where Mom and the Flag closely flank His presence.

— Jonathan Raban

He never does a proper thing without giving an improper reason for it.

— George Bernard Shaw

From his cradle to his grave a man never does a single thing which has any FIRST AND FOREMOST object but one -- to secure peace of mind, spiritual comfort, for HIMSELF.

— Mark Twain

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

— Oscar Wilde