What is motive?

Famous quotes containing the word motive:

“This part of being a man, changing the way we parent, happens only when we want it to. It changes because we are determined for it to change; and the motive for changing often comes out of wanting to be the kind of parent we didn’t have.”
—Augustus Y. Napier (20th century)

“The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)

“And I envy the intransigence of my own
Countrymen who shoot to kill and never
See the victim’s face become their own
Or find his motive sabotage their motives.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)