#motives

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

#criticism #envy #good-intentions #inspirational #intentions

It must inquire not merely about the circumstances of the time in general, but in particular about the writer's position with regard to these things, the interests and motives, the leading ideas of his literary activity. ↗

— Ferdinand Christian Baur

#activity #circumstances #general #his #ideas

This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time ignoring his fundamental ones. ↗

— Desmond Morris

#deal #equal #examining #fundamental #great

You don't just have people who wake up in the morning and say, "What evil things can I do today, because I'm Mr. Evil?" People do things for what they think are justified reasons. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and you have to keep that in mind. If you read a lot of history, as I do, even the worst and most monstrous people thought they were the good guys. We're all very tangled knots. ↗

— George R.R. Martin

#good #intentions #motives #people #motivational

It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#motivational

Finding this, she was much perplexed as to Henchard's motives in opening the matter at all; for in such cases we attribute to an enemy a power of consistent action which we never find in ourselves or or in our friends... ↗

— Thomas Hardy

#motives #motivational

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

#revenge #motivational

...our monsters walk the dark pathways of secret motives... ↗

— John Geddes

#motives #secrets #motivational

People talk of their motives in a cut and dried way. Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster. I am not a monster but I have not felt exactly what other women feel, or say they feel, for fear of being thought unlike others. ↗

— George Eliot

#motivational

What is strange is that we may remember what we have done, but not always why we did it. ↗

— Gregory Maguire

#motives #motivational