quotations about intentions
When our intentions are good we should not deprive ourselves of the means to put them into practice; it should be our duty not only to think of the means and the manner of their accomplishment, but also of our resolve to carry them to a practical and beneficial result.
JAMES ELLIS
attributed, Day's Collacon
For there's nothing we read of in torture's inventions,
Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
A Fable for Critics
We cannot penetrate into a fellow-man's brain and read his innermost thoughts; but we can get a clue to these intentions. It is to be presumed that no sane man does an act without a motive, and that what he does he does intentionally; so that from the character of his acts we may form some judgment of the nature of his intentions.
ALBERT GIBSON & ROBERT MCLEAN
Law Notes
If I know that it is only by this process that the intended operation can be performed, then to say that if I fully will the operation, I also will the action required for it, is an analytical proposition.
IMMANUEL KANT
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals
I've left behind so many unfinished quilts in my life, beautiful pieces of dreams and intentions never fully assembled.
K. MARTIN BECKNER
A Million Doorways
Intentions are a lot like seeds. You shove them into the ground, and every once in awhile, you water them. Largely, the seed does most of the work on its own. If, on one hand, you were digging the seed up several times a day to see what progress was being made, the seed would not take purchase in the soil. On the other hand, if you completely ignored it, giving no water or nourishment to the soil, the seed might not thrive.
MARY ANNE RADMACHER
365 Bold interview, Mar. 20, 2013
A good intention clothes itself with sudden power.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
For we may be led into very grave error as to a man's intentions if we affix a meaning to a sign which has not been addressed to us, or which has even been used involuntarily.
HOWARD WARBURTON ELPHINSTONE
"On the Interpretation of Formal Documents", Papers Read Before the Juridical Society
Intentions are nice, but ultimately intentions don't really matter because they only exist inside you.
KELLY WILLIAMS BROWN
Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps
It is an unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with an habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, words, and actions, at some laudable end.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator: In Eight Volumes, Volume 3
A man's intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, Dec. 1756
A good intention will no more make a truth, than a fair mark will make a good shot.
WILLIAM SPURSTOWE
The Wells of Salvation Opened
He knows he has good intentions, and he feels safe, and this very feeling of safety allows him to be quiet, and his good intentions are never performed, because he was so sure they would be.
F. D.
"Good Intentions", The Home Monthly, 1862
It is not for human judgment to dive into the heart of man, to know whether his intentions are good or evil.
LORD KENYON
Case of Lambert and Others
It is the intention that always constitutes the guilt.
J. BARTLETT
attributed, Day's Collacon
The man who is so conscious of the rectitude of his intentions as to be willing to open his bosom to the inspection of the world, is in possession of one of the strongest pillars of a decided character. The course of such a man will be firm and steady, because he has nothing to fear from the world, and is sure of the approbation and support of Heaven.
WILLIAM WIRT
address delivered before the Peithessophian and Philoclean Societies of Rutgers College, July 20, 1830
God accepts not good deeds when the intention is bad.
ALTHAHIYA
attributed, Day's Collacon
Veracity does not consist in saying, but in the intention of communicating truth.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Biographia Literaria
A man that is conscious of having honest intentions, is satisfied with the fruits of inward comfort and outward approbation.
LYMAN MAGOON
attributed, Day's Collacon
A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
SENECA
Moral Essays