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Motivational Quotes

27 quotes about motivational. Every quote shows where it comes from and how far to trust it.

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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)

We must judge of a man's motives from his overt acts.

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon King v. Waddington (1800)

Motives do not concern me; they are a dangerous subject with which to deal.

Arthur Kekewich Whelan v. Palmer (1888)

There is a desire deep within the soul which drives man from the seen to the unseen, to philosophy and to the divine.

Kahlil Gibran

Every man has a right to keep his own sentiments if he pleases.

Joseph Yates J., dissenting in Millar v. Taylor (1769)

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)

The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate.

H. L. Mencken A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

What makes life dreary is the want of motive.

George Eliot Daniel Deronda (1876)

There is no entering into the secret thoughts of a man's heart.

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

Motivation is a battle for the heart, not just an appeal to the mind. Passion is always an expression of the soul.

Patrick Dixon Building a Better Business (2005)

To enter into the hearts of men belongs to him who can explore the human heart.

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon Eaton's Case (1793)

A good intention clothes itself with sudden power.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For there's nothing we read of in torture's inventions,
Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.

James Russell Lowell A Fable for Critics (1848)

I think the motives of the legislature in passing an Act of Parliament are to be taken to be proper motives.

Sir John Bayley, 1st Baronet Trial of Hunt and others (King v. Hunt) (1820)

Anybody who says that we understand human motivation, that we can formulate simple and clear reasons for why people what they do, is either lying or naïve.

Nancy Kress Cocoons (2015)

It is not the motive, properly speaking, that determines the working of the will; but it is the will that imparts strength to the motive. As Coleridge says: " It is the man that makes the motive, and not the motive the man."

James McCosh Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

As a general proposition, we may say that the drive that carries forward any activity, when it is running freely and effectively, is inherent in that activity. It is only when an activity is running by its own drive that it can run thus freely and effectively; for as long as it is being driven by some extrinsic motive, it is subject to the distraction of that motive.

Robert S. Woodworth Dynamic Psychology (1918)

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