Noun
motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions
Source: WordNetWill springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. Abraham Lincoln
When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. Frédéric Bastiat
The moral truth here is obvious: anyone who feels that the interests of a blastocyst just might supersede the interests of a child with a spinal cord injury has had his moral sense blinded by religious metaphysics. Sam Harris
Wars, however frequent and destructive they may be, have never been able to kill entirely the intellectual and moral sense which raises man above the beast. Elie Ducommun
... the best causes tend to attract to their support the worst arguments, which seems to be equally true in the intellectual and in the moral sense. Ronald Fisher
Be these people either Conservatives or Socialists, Yellows or Reds, the most important thing is - and that is the point I want to stress - that all of them are right in the plain and moral sense of the word. Karel Čapek