50 Top Thought-Provoking Motive Quotes (MORAL)

Motivational Quotes can help you reach your potential each day. Sure, they’re just words. But they’re positive words. And if you’re on the verge of giving up or struggling to push yourself to the next level, sometimes that’s just what you need. 

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Motive Definition

Motive/Motives literal meaning is:

  1. a reason for doing something
  2. causing or being the reason for something
  3. something (such as a need or desire) that causes a person to act

Types of motives in psychology

Psychologists have divided motives into three types:
1. Biological
2. Personal
3. Social

  1. Biological Motives.

Biological motives are called physiological motives. These motives are essential for the survival of the organism and are not needed to be learned. The body always tends to maintain a state of equilibrium called “Homeostasis” which is essential for survival. When there is some variation in the body like fluid level, temperature level, nutritional level, or body temperature, etc of an individual he or she is motivated to restore the state of equilibrium

  • Hunger Motive
  • Thirst Motive
  • Need for Oxygen
  • The motive for regulation of body temperature
  • Need for Sleep
  • Need for Avoidance of Pain
  • Drive for Elimination of Waste
  • Sex Motive
  • Maternal Drive

2. Personal Motive

Personal Motives are highly personalized and very many individualized motives. 

  • Force of habits
  • Goals of life
  • Levels of aspirations
  • Attitudes and interests

3. Social Motives

Social motives are specific only to human beings. These motives are learned in social groups as a result of interaction with the family and society.

  • Achievement motive
  • Aggressive motive
  • Power motive
  • Acquisitive motive
  • Curiosity motive
  • Gregariousness

10 good motives quotes

  1. Nothing lasts forever. Not even your troubles.-Arnold H Glasgow
Good Motive Quotes - Quotes About Motive

2. Being strong means rejoicing in who you are, complete with imperfections.-Margaret Woodhouse

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3. “All our dreams can come true if we dare to pursue them.” —Walt Disney

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4. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” —Mark Twain

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5. “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” —Mary Kay Ash

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6. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ―Chinese Proverb

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7. “I wake up every morning and think to myself, ‘How far can I push this company in the next 24 hours.’” —Leah Busque

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8. “Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it. Sauté it. Whatever. MAKE.” —Joss Whedon

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9. “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”―Neil

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10. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

Also Read:

8 motive of life quotes

  1.  “Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Stephen King
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2.  “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

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3. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”– Thomas A. Edison

motive quotes

4.  “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”– Albert Einstein

motive quotes

5. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” – Steve Jobs

motive quotes

6. “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Life Quotes - Quotes About Motives

7. “The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.”– Henry Ford

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8. “Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” – Leo Burnett

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7 ulterior motive quotes

  1. You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
motive quotes

2. Selfishness is when you only remember a friend if you need something from them.

motive quotes

3. We have to be cautious of who we allow in our circle because a frenemy can be more destructive than an enemy. –Angel Moreira

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4. When success comes, people can try to trick you or take advantage of you.

motive quotes

5. Pay attention to when and why they want to talk to you.

motive quotes

6. Kindness can become its motive. We are made kind by being kind.

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7. You smell like hidden motives, get away from me.

Ulterior Motive Quotes - Quotes About Motives

5 Christian quotes on motive

  1. “God will meet you where you are to take you where He wants you to go.”
motive quotes

2. “Faith is believing BEFORE what will only make sense AFTER.”

Christian Quotes - Quotes About Motives

3. “You are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read.” – John MacArthur

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4. “Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” – Jim Elliot

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5. “Relying on God has to start all over every day as if nothing has yet been done.” – C.S. Lewis

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12 thought-provoking quotes about motive

  1. Believe in something big. Your life is worth a noble motive. – Walter Inglis Anderson
motive quotes

2. The motive power is the cause of all life. – Leonardo da Vinci

motive quotes

3. The key to motivation is motive. It’s the why. It’s the deeper yes! burning inside that makes it easier to say no to the less important. – Stephen Covey

thought-provoking quotes about motive

4. Pure motives can never justify impure or violent action. – Mahatma Gandhi

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5. It’s motive alone that gives character to the actions of men. – Jean De La Bruyere

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6. We do a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive. We want to leave the world better than we found it. – Tim Cook

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7. A wrong motive involves defeat. – Mary Baker Eddy

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8. The distance is nothing when one has a motive. – Jane Austen

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9. The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted. – Mahatma Gandhi

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10. An action is essentially good if the agent’s motive is good, regardless of the consequences. – Immanuel Kant

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11. A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives – of approving of some and disapproving of others. – Charles Darwin

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12. Never ascribe to an opponent’s motive meaner than your own. – James M. Barrie

3 people’s motives quotes

  1. “The moment there is a suspicion about a person’s motive, everything he does becomes tainted.”
Quotes about motive

2. People’s behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives. -Thomas Mann

motive quotes

3. The key to motivation is motive. It’s the why. It’s the deeper yes! Burning inside that makes it easier to say no to the less important.

People's quote above motives

5 quotes about motives of the heart

  1. Many of our deepest motives come, not from an adult logic of how things work in the world, but out of something that is frozen from childhood. – Kazuo Ishiguro
Quotes about motive of heart

2. It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. – Eric Hoffer

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3. Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives. – Oscar Wilde

quotes about motives of the heart

4. Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives. ― Criss Jami

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5. What makes life dreary is the want of a motive. – George Eliot

motive quotes