The intention of stealing. [ Law ]
Outward acts betray the secret intention. [ Law Max ]
Man punishes the action, but God the intention. [ Proverb ]
A good intention clothes itself with sudden power. [ Emerson ]
The bad man always suspects some knavish intention. [ Spanish Proverb ]
It is not the action, but the intention, that is good or bad. [ Proverb ]
He that goes to church with an ill intention, goes to God's house on the devil's errand. [ Proverb ]
A benefit consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer. [ Seneca ]
It is the mind that sins, not the body, and where there was no intention there is no criminality. [ Liv ]
Genius is inconsiderate, self-relying, and, like unconscious beauty, without any intention to please. [ I. M. Wise ]
Simplicity is in the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God, purity unites with and enjoys him. [ Thomas à Kempis ]
Such penalties does the mere intention to sin suffer; for he who meditates any secret wickedness within himself incurs the guilt of the deed. [ Juv ]
Many sacrifices have been made just to enjoy the feeling of vengeance, without any intention of causing an amount of injury equivalent to what one has suffered. [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]
Simplicity and purity are the two wings by which man is lifted up above all earthly things. Simplicity is in the intention; purity in the affection. Simplicity tends to God, purity apprehends and tastes him. [ Thomas a Kempis ]
People seldom read a book which is given to them; and few are given. The way to spread a work is to sell it at a low price. No man will send to buy a thing that costs even sixpence without an intention to read it. [ Johnson ]
Art does not imitate nature, but it founds itself on the study of nature, - takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz. the mind and the soul of man. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]
There is a sort of harmless liars, frequently to be met with in company, who deal much in exaggeration; their usual intention is to please and entertain; but as men are most delighted with what they conceive to be truth, these people mistake the means of pleasing, and incur universal blame. [ Hume ]
Many a good intention dies from inattention. If, through carelessness or indolence, or selfishness, a good intention is not put into effect, we have lost an opportunity, demoralized ourselves, and stolen from the pile of possible good. To be born and not fed, is to perish. To launch a ship and neglect it is to lose it. To have a talent and bury it, is to be a wicked and slothful servant. For in the end we shall be judged, not alone by what we have done, but by what we could have done. [ Maltbie Babcock ]