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The human mind is always inexorable in demanding a motive for all human actions. It is only himself that each man permits to act without one, and avails himself of the privilege with astonishing frequency.

— Jean Ingelow Sarah de Berenger: A Novel (1879)

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Motivational

More quotes by Jean Ingelow

Man dwells apart, though not alone,
He walks among his peers unread;
The best of thoughts which he hath known,
For lack of listeners are not said.

Poems (1863)

Is there never a chink in the world above
Where they listen for words from below?

Poems (1863)

There is nothing so unreasonable as infancy, excepting the maturer stages of life.

Fated to Be Free: A Novel (1875)

If one cannot have success, the next most agreeable thing is failure.

John Jerome: His Thoughts and Ways (1886)

I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.

Off the Skelligs: A Novel (1872)

All Jean Ingelow quotes →

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In the eye of that Supreme Being to whom our whole internal frame is uncovered, dispositions hold the place of actions.

Hugh Blair Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

It is not for human judgment to dive into the heart of man, to know whether his intentions are good or evil.

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon Case of John Lambert and others (1793)

The plaintiff cannot dive into the secret recesses of his (the defendant's) heart.

John Romilly, 1st Baron Romilly In Re Ward (1862)

Iago's soliloquy—the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity—how awful it is!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare and Other English Poets (1811)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jean Ingelow (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.