All 50 Uses

motive
in
Atlas Shrugged
(Auto-generated)

The notes flowed up, they spoke of rising and they were the rising itself, they were the essence and the form of upward motion, they seemed to embody every human act and thought that had ascent as its motive.†
Chpt 1.1

motive = reason (for doing something)
Her motive, he thought, was a proudly indirect attempt to test his feeling and to confess her own.†
Chpt 1.2
His motive in the relationship seemed to resemble the need of an anemic person who receives a kind of living transfusion from the mere sight of a savagely overabundant vitality.†
Chpt 1.2
I am not collecting it for any personal motive.†
Chpt 1.2
It was just ....You just happened to choose the one week when we had a little trouble with our motive power-our new engines are on order, but there's been a slight delay-you know what a problem we're having with the manufacturers of locomotives-but it's only temporary.†
Chpt 1.3
She was unable, then or since, to understand the motives of those who decided to build the line.†
Chpt 1.3

motives = reasons for doing something
Motive power —you can't imagine how important that is.†
Chpt 1.3

motive = reason (for doing something)
Motive power-thought Dagny, looking up at the Taggart Building in the twilight-was its first need; motive power, to keep that building standing; movement, to keep it immovable.†
Chpt 1.4
Motive power-thought Dagny, looking up at the Taggart Building in the twilight-was its first need; motive power, to keep that building standing; movement, to keep it immovable.†
Chpt 1.4
She had always been-she closed her eyes with a faint smile of amusement and pain-the motive power of her own happiness.†
Chpt 1.4
Some months ago, I instructed our Operating Department to cut the schedule on the San Sebastian Line down to a single train a day, and to remove from it our best motive power and rolling stock, as well as every piece of equipment that could be moved.†
Chpt 1.4
"Let's find out" was the motive he gave to Dagny and Eddie for anything he undertook, or "Let's make it."†
Chpt 1.5
They never had to explain the rest to each other; they knew each other's goal and motive.†
Chpt 1.5
She felt pleasure in what she suddenly grasped about him, about herself and about his motive.†
Chpt 1.5
He did not try to stop her; he leaned back, his elbows in the grass, and looked at her without moving; his glance seemed to say that he knew her motive.†
Chpt 1.5
Can you think of a motive that would prompt me to do it?†
Chpt 1.5
Not to inquire about my aims, motives or desires is an essential part of their theory.†
Chpt 1.5

motives = reasons for doing something
If you didn't want to make money, what possible motive could you have had?†
Chpt 1.5

motive = reason (for doing something)
My motive, Dagny?†
Chpt 1.5
He wondered why this was a motive that had no power to impel him.†
Chpt 1.6
Only those whose motive is not money-making should be allowed to write.†
Chpt 1.6
My motives cannot interest you at present.†
Chpt 1.6

motives = reasons for doing something
What's your motive?†
Chpt 1.6

motive = reason (for doing something)
The man who sat in front of Rearden's desk had vague features and a manner devoid of all emphasis, so that one could form no specific image of his face nor detect the driving motive of his person.†
Chpt 1.7
Dagny could not understand Mr. Mowen's motive.†
Chpt 1.7
what motive moved them?†
Chpt 1.7
She had wanted to see the outcome of the battle; now that he had won it-or lost-she was struck by the sudden, urgent need to know his identity and motive.†
Chpt 1.8
The petition stated that its signers had no motive other than "a sense of civic duty."†
Chpt 1.8
Another asked, "Aren't you going to tell us your motive for building that Line?†
Chpt 1.8
That was my motive for building the Line.†
Chpt 1.8
-I thought their real motive for inviting me was their appreciation of the Metal, and—" She smiled in the brief space of his pause; she knew the sentence he had stopped himself from uttering: " and for that, I would forgive anyone anything."†
Chpt 1.9
And I couldn't figure out what their motive was.†
Chpt 1.9
Dagny, I don't think they had any motive at all.†
Chpt 1.9
And ...and of what use is a railroad without motive power?†
Chpt 1.9
There was no action she could take against the men of undefined thought, of unnamed motives, of unstated purposes, of unspecified morality.†
Chpt 1.10

motives = reasons for doing something
Dimly, she felt the chill of a thought telling her that self-interest was not Jim's motive.†
Chpt 1.10

motive = reason (for doing something)
Now he wondered what motive could have made her so sensitive to a change in him-unless it was a feeling much greater than he had ever suspected her of experiencing.†
Chpt 1.10
"Therefore, if you're thinking of your railroad, Miss Taggart-as, of course, you are, in view of certain possible developments-I must point out to you that although the welfare of the country is my first consideration, to which I would not hesitate to sacrifice anyone's profits, still, I have never closed my ears to a plea for mercy and—" She looked at him and understood what it was that he wanted from her, what sort of motive kept him going.†
Chpt 1.10
My motives were pure.†
Chpt 1.10

motives = reasons for doing something
No clue was ever found to Mulligan's motive, to his personal fate or to the many millions of his personal fortune.†
Chpt 1.10

motive = reason (for doing something)
I have no special motive.†
Chpt 2.1
He had never doubted the nature of the world or man's greatness as its motive power and its core.†
Chpt 2.1
They had not discussed that law, at their dinner together, or their motives or the risk they were taking.†
Chpt 2.2

motives = reasons for doing something
By the unwritten code of the day, nobody received or accepted an invitation from a man of public prominence except in token of one or the other of these motives.†
Chpt 2.2
What is your motive?†
Chpt 2.2

motive = reason (for doing something)
You knew my motive when you gave me the bracelet.†
Chpt 2.2
Now would you care to be a martyr for an issue of principle, only in circumstances where nobody will know that that's what you are-nobody but you and me-where you won't get a chance to breathe a word about the issue or the principle-where you won't be a hero, the creator of a spectacular new metal, making a stand against enemies whose actions might appear somewhat shabby in the eyes of the public-where you won't be a hero, but a common criminal, a greedy industrialist who's cheated the law for a plain motive of profit, a racketeer of the black market who's broken the national regulations designed to protect the public welfare-a hero without glory and without public, who'll accomplish no more†
Chpt 2.3
It's only a matter of knowing man's motive power.†
Chpt 2.3
Did you ask me to name man's motive power?†
Chpt 2.3
Man's motive power is his moral code.†
Chpt 2.3

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Definitions:

(1) (motive as in: What is her motive?)
a reason for doing something
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Less commonly, motive can refer to something that causes motion in an inanimate object. Even less commonly, it can refer to a distinctive feature in music, art, or literature.

motive in Atlas Shrugged (Auto-generated)

motive
in
Atlas Shrugged
(Auto-generated)