A Quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky

We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

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Accurately Another Apt Complicated Describe Far Forget Generally Human More Motives Must Never Never Forget Rarely Suppose Than Very

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Fyodor Dostoevsky
Russian - Novelist
November 11, 1821 - February 9, 1881

What is obnoxious about the motives of politicians - whatever those motives may be - is that politicians must announce their motives as visionary and grand.

P. J. O'Rourke

Men are more accountable for their motives, than for anything else; and primarily, morality consists in the motives, that is in the affections.

Archibald Alexander

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

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

The human mind is generally far more eager to praise or dispraise than it is to describe and define.

C. S. Lewis

Many ... begin to make converts from motives of charity, but continue to do so from motives of pride. ... Charity is contented with exhortation and example, but pride is not to be so easily satisfied. ... Whenever we find ourselves more inclined to persecute than persuade, we may then be certain that our zeal has more of pride in it than of charity.

Charles Caleb Colton

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

A great many wise sayings have been uttered about the effects of solitary retirement; but the motives which impel men to seek it are not more various than the effects which it produces on different individuals. One thing is certain, that those who can with truth affirm that they are "never less alone than when alone," might generally add that they never feel more lonely than when not alone.

Arthur Helps

Humans are very seldom either totally sincere or totally hypocritical. Their moods change, their motives are mixed, and they are often quite mistaken as to what their motives are.

C. S. Lewis

Animals are complicated and so is the animal-rights opposition. It's hard to read motives in animals, and hard to read motives in politics.

Bette Ford

You should have disagreements with your leaders and your colleagues, but if it becomes immediately a question of questioning people's motives, and if immediately you decide that somebody who sees a whole new situation differently than you must be a bad person and somehow twisted inside, we are not going to get very far in forming a more perfect union.

William J. Clinton

I invest because I love helping entrepreneurs and watching them learn and succeed. In my opinion your motives are driven by self serving factors around ego satisfaction and "making a buck". My motives and values are very different.

Ron Conway

One cannot live without motives. I have no motives left, and I am living.

Emile M. Cioran

There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest.

Alexander Hamilton

The automobile is technologically more sophisticated than the bundling board, but the human motives in their uses are sometimes the same.

Charles Mengel Allen

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

A Quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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