J. P. Morgan Quotes

A man always has two reasons for what he does—a good one and the real one.

A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one.

Human beings do things for a reason, even if sometimes it's the wrong reason.

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

No matter how bad the individual, everybody has reasons for why they do what they do.

When someone is trying to interpret something for you, they always have an agenda.

I am fascinated by that notion of people are never as they seem. And that doesn't make them good or bad. It's just we don't ever really show ourselves if we don't have to.

There's a tendency, especially among revolutionaries, to only show the good side of yourself and then when you come to power, the bad side comes out.

Flattery and insults raise the same question: What do you want?

Have a very good reason for everything you do.

Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it.

An untruth must be spoken, where need requires. For whether men lie, or say true, it is with one and the same object. Men lie, because they think to gain by deceiving others; and speak the truth, because they expect to get something by their true speaking, and to be trusted afterwards in more important matters. Thus, though their conduct is so opposite, the end of both is alike. If there were no gain to be got, your true-speaking man would tell untruths as much as your liar, and your liar would tell the truth as much as your true-speaking man.

World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.

Man has an infinite capacity to rationalize - especially when it comes to what he wants to eat.

Interest makes all seem reason that leads to it.

It strikes me how strange people are. You can see them every day - you can think you know them - and then you fшnd out you hardly know them at all.

I'm always suspicious of disinterested interest.

Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don't realise it. - Miss Marple

For my own good. Anytime anyone had ever used those words to me, they hadn't had the slightest clue what ‘my own good’ truly was

Proof is boring. Proof is tiresome. Proof is an irrelevance. People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.

When people give you their stated reason for doing something always assume they are giving you a reason that sounds good, but not the real reason.

He never does a proper thing without giving an improper reason for it.

Things are often spoke and seldom meant.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

We humans, you see, have an infinite capacity for self-rationalization.