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Motivation

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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

Motivation is the reason for people's actions, willingness and goals.

Quotes

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Arouse your energy for the attainment of the as-yet-unattained, for the achievement of the as-yet-unachieved, for the realization of the as-yet-unrealized. ~ Gautama Buddha
See a person's means … Observe his motives. Examine that in which he rests. How can a person conceal his character? ~ Confucius
  • There are two things people want more than sex and money . . . i.e recognition and praise.
    • Mary Kay Ash, as quoted in The Greatest Management Principle in the World (1985) by Michael LeBoeuf, p. 97.
  • In the eye of that Supreme Being to whom our whole internal frame is uncovered, dispositions hold the place of actions.
    • Hugh Blair, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 420.
  • Dreadful will be the day when the world becomes contented, when one great universal satisfaction spreads itself over the world. Sad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life that he is living, with the thoughts that he is thinking, with the deeds that he is doing, when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is a child of God.
  • Bhikkhus, the lazy person dwells in suffering, soiled by evil unwholesome states, and great is the personal good that he neglects. But the energetic person dwells happily, secluded from evil unwholesome states, and great is the personal good that he achieves. It is not by the inferior that the supreme is attained; rather, it is by the supreme that the supreme is attained. Bhikkhus, this holy life is a beverage of cream; the Teacher is present. Therefore, bhikkhus, arouse your energy for the attainment of the as-yet-unattained, for the achievement of the as-yet-unachieved, for the realization of the as-yet-unrealized.
  • See a person's means … Observe his motives. Examine that in which he rests. How can a person conceal his character?
  • In general, we do well to let an opponent's motives alone. We are seldom just to them. Our own motives on such occasions are often worse than those we assail.
    • William Ellery Channing, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 420.
  • Motivation is a battle for the heart, not just an appeal to the mind. Passion is always an expression of the soul.
  • I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that leads men to art and science is to escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared with the townsman's irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still, pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity. ...
    Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. That is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way the peace and security which he cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
    • Albert Einstein, "Principles of Research" (1918) address delivered in celebration of Max Planck's 60th birthday before the Physical Society in Berlin, in Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions (1954).
  • We must not inquire too curiously into motives…. they are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.
    • George Eliot, Middlemarch (1977 [originally published in 1871–1872]), chapter 2, p. 13.
  • There is a desire deep within the soul which drives man from the seen to the unseen, to philosophy and to the divine.
    • Khalil Gibran, "Al Ghazali", Mirrors of the Soul, trans. Joseph Sheban (1965), p. 49.
  • 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 (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1879), Ch. 11, p. 134.
  • 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.
  • 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, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 420.
  • The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate.
    • H. L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949), p. 12. This is the opening sentence of his essay, The Scientist, first published in The Smart Set, August 1919.
  • The plea of good intentions is not one that can be allowed to have much weight in passing historical judgment upon a man whose wrong-headedness and distorted way of looking at things produced, or helped to produce, such incalculable evil; there is a wide political applicability in the remark attributed to a famous Texan, to the effect that he might, in the end, pardon a man who shot him on purpose, but that he would surely never forgive one who did so accidentally.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, writing of John C. Calhoun, Thomas Hart Benton (1897, reprinted 1968), chapter 5, p. 111.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 532.
  • Iago's soliloquy—the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity—how awful it is!
  • What makes life dreary is the want of motive.
    • George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876), Book VIII, Chapter LXV.
  • For there's nothing we read of in torture's inventions,
    Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.
  • Men's minds are as variant as their faces. Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are alike unavoidable.
  • 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.
  • We all know this type of behavior, where the interest of the performer is in himself and not in the work. One who has thoroughly prepared for a public performance of some sort, may break down in the performance because of inability to get away from the desire to do his best in the presence of all these spectators, this self-consciousness making impossible a direct application of his energies to the work in hand.
  • The motive that originally induced him to go in for this event may very well have been a desire to distinguish himself; but this motive has to drop out of sight or else by its distraction spoil the performance. It is not true, then, that the motive that initiates a given activity furnishes the motive force for the whole activity; it simply leads the performer up to the act, but the motive force for the act itself must be inherent.
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Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 178-180.
  • Motives do not concern me; they are a dangerous subject with which to deal.
    • Kekewich, J., Whelan v. Palmer (1888), L. J. Rep. (N. S.) 57 C. D. 788.
  • What passes in the mind of man is not scrutable by any human tribunal; it is only to be collected from his acts.
    • Willes, J., King v. Shipley (1784), 3 Doug. 177.
  • We must judge of a man's motives from his overt acts.
    • Lord Kenyon, C.J., King v. Waddington (1800), 1 East, 158.
  • There is no entering into the secret thoughts of a man's heart.
  • It is impossible to dive into the secret recesses of a man's heart.
    • Sir William Grant, M.R., Burrowes v. Lock (1805), 10 Ves. Jr. 476.
  • To enter into the hearts of men belongs to him who can explore the human heart.
    • Lord Kenyon, C.J., Eaton's Case (1793), 22 How. St. Tr. 821.
  • It is not for human judgment to dive into the heart of man, to know whether his intentions are good or evil.
    • Lord Kenyon, C.J., Case of Lambert and others (1793), 22 How. St. Tr. 1018.
  • . . . The fallacious use of the principle that you cannot look into a man's mind. It is said you cannot do that: therefore what follows? It is said that you are to have fixed rules to tell you that he must have meant something, one way or the other, when certain exterior phenomena arise. The answer is that there is no such thing as an absolute criterion which gives you certain index to a man's mind. There is nothing outside his mind which is an absolute indication of what is going on inside. So far from saying that you cannot look into a man's mind, you must look into it, if you are going to find fraud against him: and unless you think you see what must have been in his mind, you cannot find him guilty of fraud.
    • Bowen, L.J., Angus v. Clifford (1891), L. R. 2 C. D. [1891], p. 471.
  • He revealeth the deep and secret things, he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
    • Quoted by Legge, B., Trial of Mary Blandy (1752), 18 How. St. Tr. 1188.
  • The plaintiff cannot dive into the secret recesses of his (the defendant's) heart.
    • Lord Romilly, M.B., In Re Ward (1862), 31 Beav. 7.
  • Every man has a right to keep his own sentiments if he pleases.
    • Joseph Yates, J., dissenting in Millar v. Taylor (1769), 4 Burr. Part IV., 2379.
  • Men's feelings are as different as their faces.
    • Grose, J., Good v. Elliott (1790), 3 T. R. 701.
  • A man acting for himself may indulge his own caprices, and consider what is convenient or agreeable to himself, as well as what is strictly prudent, and his prudential motives cannot afterwards be separated from the others which may have governed him.
  • Motives are very often immaterial with reference to the manner of disposing of a suit. It has been said by an eminent Judge, that if you were to look into motives of suitors, Courts of justice would not sit above a month in the year, and would have little to do. Of course there are, in numerous instances, motives for litigation which, if they could be looked into, would prevent a Court of justice from interfering. But generally I agree that it is not the rule so to regard them.
    • Knight Bruce, L.J., Att.-Gen. v. Sheffield Gas Consumers Co. (1853), 3 D. M. & G. 311.
  • The rule of our law is that the immediate cause, the causa proxima, and not the remote cause, is to be looked at: for, as Lord Bacon says: "It were infinite for the law to judge the causes of causes and their impulsions one of another; therefore it contenteth itself with the immediate cause, and judgeth of acts by that, without looking to any further degree."
    • Blackburn, J., Sneesby v. Lancashire and Yorkshire Rail. Co. (1874), L. R. 9 Q. B. Ca. 267.
  • I think the motives of the legislature in passing an Act of Parliament are to be taken to be proper motives.
  • It was by no means uncommon, where the legislature had a particular object in view in making a particular statute, to extend the enactments beyond the immediate and original object, and apply it to other matter suggested by it.
    • Abbott, C.J., Clarke v. Burdett and another (1819), 2 Stark. 505.


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