Top 56 Good Motives Quotes
#1. Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
Ayn Rand
#2. The greatest cause of evil included all human motives in one giant paradox. Good and bad were so inextricably mixed that we couldn't make them out; bad seemed to lead to good, and good motives led to bad. The paradox is that evil comes from man's urge to heroic victory over evil.
Ernest Becker
#3. Moonlight possesses no alchemy to transmute good motives to base, but it does excite love magic ...
John Geddes
#4. The Liberty of the press consists in the right to publish with impunity truth with good motives for justifiable ends, though reflecting on government, magistracy, or individuals.
Alexander Hamilton
#5. We are not more ingenious in searching out bad motives for good actions when performed by others, than good motives for bad actions when performed by ourselves.
Charles Caleb Colton
#6. Good motives butter no parsnips, and hell is paved with buttered parsnips.
Irvin S. Cobb
#7. When you look at a character and you're like, "Wow, that's really unexplored terrain for me and there's a lot happening here and different angles to him," and you're not sure what his motives are, you've got a good shot at working towards something interesting.
Hoon Lee
#8. Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?
Thomas Jefferson
#9. Practically everything I did as an experiment while I was working on the book made me feel cold, angry, and decidedly peculiar. Clinical. Because I wasn't acting from the motives people usually work from: to feel good, to have fun, to make something last.
Joan Juliet Buck
#10. However absurd it may seem, I do in all seriousness hereby declare that I am animated mainly by philanthropic motives. I desire to do good to my fellow creatures, even to the Cui bonos.
Oliver Heaviside
#11. I have always been taught ... that every man is divinely called to his work, if that work is for the good of all men. His faithfulness or unfaithfulness to the call is revealed in the motives that prompt him to choose his field.
Harold Bell Wright
#12. Capitalism justified itself and was adopted as an economic principle on the express ground that it provides selfish motives for doing good, and that human beings will do nothing except for selfish motives
George Bernard Shaw
#13. If the outcome is good, what's the difference between motives that sound good and good, sound motives?
Laurence J. Peter
#14. Why Christians do what they do is just as important as what they do. Bad motives ruin good acts.
John Piper
#15. A man can appear to be a part of something not-so-good on its face, but don't take it upon yourself to judge him unless you know his motives as well.
Harper Lee
#16. People always try to find base motives behind every good action. We are afraid of pure goodness and of pure evil.
Eugene Ionesco
#17. If you are innately skeptical of other people's motives, then no amount of good behavior in the past will ever truly convince you that they are not just about to disappoint you. Suspicion is a permanent condition.
Marcus Buckingham
#18. Discernment is the son of good judgment and the father of self-control. When mixed with an already clear conscience, the ability to read the true motives of a critic keeps one's conscience both clear and at ease.
Criss Jami
#19. The strangest of all the doctrines of the cult of competition, in which admittedly there must be losers as well as winners, is that the result of competition is inevitably good for everybody, that altruistic ends may be met by a system without altruistic motives or altruistic means.
Wendell Berry
#20. You have to help another person. But it's not right to play God with masses of people. To be God you have to know what you're doing. And to do any good at all, just believing you're right and your motives are good isn't enough.
Ursula K. Le Guin
#21. This kind of charge reveals a good deal about the personality of the people who make it; to impute such motives to another man is to imply you're harboring them yourself.
Jim Garrison
#22. What good is the legal process if people can decide their motives are bigger than the law?
Jodi Picoult
#23. The New Testament persistently presses us upward, toward higher motives for being good.
Philip Yancey
#24. We are all very good at rationalizing our actions so that they are in line with our selfish motives.
Dan Ariely
#26. Without trust and respect, only fear and distrust of others' motives and intentions are left. Without trust and respect between parties, it is nearly impossible to find good solutions to effective communication.
Deborah A. Beasley
#27. Christians are good citizens, and take human laws very seriously, for religious reasons, not just for secular reasons. That's why they are better citizens than atheists, and certainly better citizens than moral relativists and subjectivists: they have stronger motives for obedience.
Peter Kreeft
#28. The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God.
Oswald Chambers
#29. A lot of times people's main motives and plan in life is to hurt as many people as they can, but I think there's enough good people that help make the world a good place.
Tina Yothers
#30. for the Christian, good acts are not the cover for improper motives but, instead, the fruit borne of a loving relationship with God.
Timothy Joseph Golden
#31. As an artist, my talents are not mine alone to just keep. My creations have to touch lives, spread love and let my skills be used only in good things but should be selfless not through selfish motives. In this manner, I am giving the gift back to my Master Creator. - Elizabeth's Quotes
Elizabeth E. Castillo
#32. Matter what your father plans, nor what his motives might be. God will prevail. God will use everything to His good purpose if you love and trust Him.
Francine Rivers
#33. Motives are better than actions. Men drift into crime. Of evil they do more than they contemplate, and of good they contemplate more than they do.
Christian Nestell Bovee
#34. Even if people are suspicious of the motives I think that learning and speaking two languages can only be a good thing for people.
Stephen Harper
#35. Our motives and thoughts ultimately influence our actions. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the power of good thoughts and proper motives: 'Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not'
In Proverbs we read, 'For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
#36. Every soul is a soul. It is the motives, deeds and actions that define the personality of each soul.
Lailah Gifty Akita
#37. I thought my heart was pure. We do like to have such good opinions of our own motives when we're about to do something harmful, to someone else.
Margaret Atwood
#38. I learned then that practically no one in the world is entirely bad or entirely good, and that motives are often more important than actions.
Eleanor Roosevelt
#39. Achieving the good life is more a matter of being than of doing or giving. It calls for intense self-scrutiny, a relentless honesty about one's motives, and a persistent feeling that we are no better - and perhaps worse - than those we are trying to help.
Sydney J. Harris
#40. If your motives are high and noble and your work is hard and you do a good job, then whatever the task is in your life, it will benefit you.
Frederick Lenz
#42. It is not always the motives behind an action that make it noble. Sometimes it is as simple as the action itself.
Jocelyn Murray
#43. We can only write well about our sins because it is too difficult to recall a virtuous act or even whether it was the result of good or evil motives.
Edward Dahlberg
#44. A relationship with Christ changes your heart. It's not about your head. It changes your heart. Jesus comes to live in your heart, and even if a person does good works, but they do them without Christ, most of the time, their motives are wrong for why they do them.
Joyce Meyer
#45. People who don't know you, you don't know their motives. They smile at you all day, "Oh, that's great. You've done it again! You're the greatest!" And that's not good for an artist.
Jay-Z
#46. The motive behind criticism often determines its validity. Those who care criticize where necessary. Those who envy criticize the moment they think that they have found a weak spot.
Criss Jami
#47. One of the things I found is that the things we want to say for well-intentioned motives often cause more harm than good. People don't need our words. They mainly need our presence, they need our love. And if you come in too quickly with explanations, you may do more harm than good.
Philip Yancey
#48. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
Mother Teresa
#49. How frequently is the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped With the imputation of proceeding from bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!
Laurence Sterne
#50. Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature
John Locke
#51. As long as I know that my motives are good, I'm Seldom very concerned with the opinions of others.
-Mandorallen, Baron of Vo Mandor.
David Eddings
#52. The public good is promoted best by people pursuing their own private interests. This bothers some people because they're more concerned with motives than with results.
Walter E. Williams
#53. Any good story can galvanize a person, make him/her think about things a different way, reassess their own motives and needs, but that's never my intent. That's an unintended consequence of me just trying to entertain, to write what we used to call 'ripping yarns.'
Raymond E. Feist
#54. People will have their excitements, and a good rousing persecution used to stir things like the burning of Chicago or a Presidential election in our day.
E.P. Roe
#55. You are people with a present and with a future. Don't muff the ball. Be excellent.
Gordon B. Hinckley
#56. Be wary of someone who has never failed, or seem to have no faults... Too good to be true usually is. Perfection hides something.
Henry Cloud
