
“Never question another man's motive. His wisdom, yes, but not his motives.”
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 420.
“Never question another man's motive. His wisdom, yes, but not his motives.”
Peace and the Public Mind (1935)
Context: The force which makes for war does not derive its strength from the interested motives of evil men; it derives its strength from the disinterested motives of good men. Pacifists have sometimes evaded that truth as making too great a concession to Mars, as seeming to imply (which it does not in fact) that in order to abolish war, men must cease to be noble.
Base motives are, of course, among those which make up the forces that produce war. Base motives are among those which get great cathedrals built and hospitals constructed-contractors' profit-seeking, the vested interests of doctors and clergy. But Europe has not been covered by cathedrals because contractors wanted to make money, or priests wanted jobs.
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), XI : The Practical Problem
During the pandemic in India
Source: https://www.bollywoodkibaten.in/2022/01/nitin-pujari-power-of-positivity.html
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
“The profit motive, we are constantly being told, is as old as man himself.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter II, The Economic Revolution, p. 15
Context: It may strike us as odd that the idea of gain is a relatively modern one; we are schooled to believe that man is essentially an acquisitive creature and that left to himself he will behave as any self-respecting businessman would. The profit motive, we are constantly being told, is as old as man himself.
Nothing could be further from the truth.