Ought Quotes - Page 27

• ... we ought to be astonished at nothing; for what do we not meet with in our journey through life?

  Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne

  Journey, Journey Through Life

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• Beneath the surface of repartee and mock seriousness, [Plato's Phaedrus] is asking whether we ought to prefer a neuter form of speech to the kind which is ever getting us aroused over things and provoking an expense of spirit.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Plato, Asking, Speech

  Richard M. Weaver (1985). “The Ethics of Rhetoric”, p.5, Psychology Press

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• One of the duties of old-age, is the management of time. The less that remains to us, the more valuable we ought to consider it.

  Anne-Therese de Marguenat de Courcelles

  Age, Duty, Valuable

  "Essays on Friendship and Old-Age". Book by Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles, translated by Eliza Ball Hayley, p. 121, 1780.

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• That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law, ought not to be obeyed.

  Algernon Sidney

  Law, Justice

  Algernon Sidney (1751). “Discourses Concerning Gouernment. By Algernon Sidney, Esq; to which are Added, Memories of His Life, and an Apology for Himself ..”, p.56

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• Experience, however, shows that neither a state nor a bank ever have [sic] had the unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power; in all states, therefore, the issue of paper money ought to be under some check and control; and none seems so proper for that purpose as that of subjecting the issuers of paper money to the obligation of paying their notes either in gold coin or bullion.

  David Ricardo

  Issues, Gold, Purpose

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• True statesmanship is the art of changing a nation from what it is into what it ought to be.

  William Rounseville Alger

  Leadership, Art, Nations

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• George theThird Ought never to have occurred. One can only wonder At so grotesque a blunder.

  E. C. Bentley

  Wonder, Grotesque, Blunders

  'More Biography' (1929) 'George the Third'

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• Usage ain't always a matter of ought.

  Roy Blount, Jr.

  Matter, Usage

  Roy Blount, Jr. (2009). “Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory”, p.197, Macmillan

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• We must not be guilty of taking the law into our own hands, and converting it from what it really is to what we think it ought to be.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Thinking, Hands, Law

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• We ought to define a man's income as the maximum value which he can consume during a week, and still expect to be as well off at the end of the week as he was at the beginning.

  Sir John Richard Hicks

  Men, Income, Week

  1946 Value and Capital (2nd edn).

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• The rule of distributive justice is a statement of what ought to be, and what people say ought to be is determined in the long run and with some lag by what they find in fact to be the case.

  George C. Homans

  Running, Long, People

  1974 Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms (rev edn).

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• Really, one of us ought to have the courage to call the experiment off and shoulder the responsibility for the decision, but the majority reckons that that kind of courage would be a sign of cowardice, and the first step in a retreat. They think it would mean an undignified surrender for mankind as if there was any dignity in floundering and drowning in what we don't understand and never will.

  Stanislaw Lem

  Mean, Responsibility, Thinking

  "Solaris". Book by Stanisław Lem, translated by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox. Chapter 11: "The Thinkers", p. 158, 1970.

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• I hate the word 'ought' - it always implies something dull, cold, and commonplace. The 'ought nots' of life are its pleasantest things.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Hate, Dull, Cold

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1837). “Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides ...”, p.88

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• Jealousy ought to be tragic, to save it from being ridiculous.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Jealousy, Ridiculous, Tragic

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1831). “Romance and Reality”, p.160

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• From religion ... they will learn the only true lesson of equality - the conviction that our destinies are not in our own hands; they will see that no situation in life is without its share of suffering; - and this perpetual reference to a higher power ought equally to teach the rich humility, and the poor devotion.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Humility, Destiny, Situations In Life

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• African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States, and excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided and heart-felt interest.

  Maria W. Stewart

  Heart, Men, Fire

  Maria W. Stewart, Marilyn Richardson (1987). “Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches”, p.56, Indiana University Press

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• God, who is liberal in all his other gifts, shows us, by the wise economy of His providence, how circumspect we ought to be in the management of our time, for He never gives us two moments together.

  Francois Fenelon

  Wise, Time, Two

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• It is entirely the work of grace and a benefit conferred by it that our heart is changed from a stony one to one of flesh, that our will is made new, and that we, created anew in heart and mind, at length will what we ought to will.

  John Calvin

  Heart, Grace, Mind

  John Calvin (2002). “The Bondage and Liberation of the Will (Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought): A Defence of the Orthodox Doctrine of Human Choice against Pighius”, p.287, Baker Books

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• The intelligent have a right over the ignorant, namely, the right of instructing them. The right punishment of one out of tune, isto make him play in tune; the fine which the good, refusing to govern, ought to pay, is, to be governed by a worse man; that his guards shall not handle gold and silver, but shall be instructed that there is gold and silver in their souls, which will make men willing to give them every thing which they need.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Education, Responsibility, Intelligent

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• Is this not true--That in proportion to the value of their estates the extremely wealthy pay far less taxes than those of moderatemeans? Compare the amount paid by millionaires with the amount paid by ordinary citizens. I believe that in proportion to their estates they pay less than half as much as ordinary citizens, whereas they ought to pay more.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Believe, Pay, Ordinary

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• Whoso neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself; it is not too little, but too great for him, that he doeth it not.

  Edward Bouverie Pusey

  Littles, Deceiving, Neglect

  Edward Bouverie Pusey (1883). “Maxims and gleanings from the writings of E.B. Pusey, selected by C.M.S.”

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• a church ought to express the joy of religion as well as its majesty.

  Barbara Mertz

  Joy, Church, Majesty

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• A man asking for help ought to at least give directions.

  Barbara Mertz

  Men, Asking For Help, Giving

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• We can literally unplug a country from the Internet. We ought to think about unplugging them.

  Richard A. Clarke

  Country, Thinking, Internet

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• We ought to be cautious in taking even the best ascertained opinions and practices of the primitive Church for our own. If it could be satisfactorily shown that they esteemed it authorized and transmitted forever, that does not settle the question for us. We know how inveterately they were attached to their Jewish prejudices, and how often even the influence of Christ failed to enlarge their views. On every other subject succeeding times have learned to form a judgement more in accordance with the spirit of Christianity than was the practice of the early ages.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Views, Practice, Forever

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.105, Modern Library

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