Ought Quotes - Page 35

• All these cries of having "abolished slavery," of having "saved the country," of having "preserved the union," of establishing a "government of consent," and of "maintaining the national honor," are all gross, shameless, transparent cheats - so transparent that they ought to deceive no one.

  Lysander Spooner

  Country, Government, Honor

  Lysander Spooner (1972). “Let's Abolish Government”, Ayer Company Pub

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• The traveler may feel assured, he will meet with no difficulties or dangers, excepting in rare cases, nearly so bad as he beforehand anticipates. In a moral point of view, the effect ought to be, to teach him good-humored patience, freedom from selfishness, the habit of acting for himself, and of making the best of every occurrence.

  Charles Darwin

  Views, Acting, Selfishness

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• Traveling ought also to teach him distrust; but at the same time he will discover, how many truly kind-hearted people there are, with whom he never before had, or ever again will have any further communication, who yet are ready to offer him the most disinterested assistance.

  Charles Darwin

  Communication, People, Kind

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Darwin (Illustrated)”, p.445, Delphi Classics

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• The late Rev. Peter Gomes at The Memorial Church at Harvard was a true mentor to me when I was in college. He instilled in me a commitment to service, saying that it's not enough to believe in service, or support those who serve - you ought to find a way yourself to serve. When I looked at different options after college, nobody inspired me more than the 18- and 19-year-olds who serve on the front lines of our nation's military. Serving with them in the Marines as we together served our country was the greatest honor of my life to date.

  Seth Moulton

  Country, Military, Believe

  "Congress at War". www.politico.com. July, 2015.

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• In my platoon, we came from different parts of the country, with different backgrounds, different religious beliefs, different political beliefs—and yet we all put those differences aside. Fundamentally, I believe that’s what the American people expect of Congress as well. We all ought to be able to come together in Washington and do what’s best for our America.

  Seth Moulton

  Country, Religious, Believe

  "Congress at War". www.politico.com. July, 2015.

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• The reason is, and by rights ought to be, slave to the emotions.

  Bertrand Russell

  Rights, Emotion, Slave

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• Nor ought we ever to allow any growing power to acquire such a degree of strength as to be able to tear from us, without resistance, our natural, undisputed rights.

  Polybius

  Rights, Tears, Degrees

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• We cannot distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or know what obedience we owe to the magistrate, or what we may justly expect from him, unless we know what he is, why he is, and by whom he is made to be what he is.... I cannot know how to obey unless I know in what, and to whom; nor in what unless I know what ought to be commanded; nor what ought to be commanded unless I understand the original right of the commander, which is the great arcanum.

  Algernon Sidney

  May, Obedience, Made

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• Those who want their rights respected under the Constitution and the law ought to set the example themselves of observing the Constitution and the law. While there may be those of high intelligence who violate the law at times, the barbarian and the defective always violate it. Those who disregard the rules of society are not exhibiting a superior intelligence, are not promoting freedom and independence, are not following the path of civilization, but are displaying the traits of ignorance, of servitude, of savagery, and treading the way that leads back to the jungle.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Ignorance, Rights, Law

  Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1925

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• In this real world of sweat and dirt, it seems to me that when a view of things is 'noble,' that ought to count as presumption against its truth, and as a philosophic disqualification. The prince of darkness may be a gentleman, as we are told he is, but whatever the God of earth and heaven is, he can surely be no gentleman.

  William James

  Real, Views, Sweat

  William James (2015). “Pragmatism: Human Understanding”, p.26, 谷月社

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• For earthly princes lay aside their power when they rise up against God, and are unworthy to be reckoned among the number of mankind. We ought, rather, utterly to defy them.

  John Calvin

  Numbers, Mankind, Lays

  John Calvin “Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion”, Westminster John Knox Press

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• He knoweth nothing as he ought to know it, who thinketh he knoweth anything without seeing its place and the manner how it relateth to God, angels, and men, and to all the creatures in earth, heaven and hell, time and eternity.

  Thomas Traherne

  Angel, Men, Heaven

  Thomas Traherne (1968). “Christian Ethicks”

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• A poet is seldom hard up for advice. The worst part of it all is that sometimes the advice is coming from other poets, and they ought to know better.

  Richard Hugo

  Advice, Sometimes, Poet

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• Horace, when he wrote the Ars Poetica, recommended that poets keep their poems home for ten years; don't let them go, don't publish them until you have kept them around for ten years: by that time, they ought to stop moving on you; by that time, you ought to have them right.

  Donald Hall

  Moving, Home, Years

  Donald Hall (1988). “Poetry and Ambition: Essays 1982-1988”

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• An old poet ought never to be caught with his technique showing.

  Stanley Kunitz

  Technique, Poet, Caught

  Stanley Kunitz, Kent P. Ljungquist (2013). “Conversations with Stanley Kunitz”, p.40, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• When you set about your composing, it may be necessary for your ease, and better distillation of wit, to put on your worst clothes, and the worse the better; for an author, like a limbeck, will yield the better for having a rag about him: besides that, I have observed a gardener cut the outward rind of a tree (which is the surtout of it) to make it bear well; and this is a natural account of the usual poverty of poets, and is an argument why wits, of all men living, ought to be ill clad.

  Jonathan Swift

  Cutting, Men, Clothes

  Jonathan Swift (1812). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D. ...: With Notes, Historical and Critical”, p.73

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• No matter what your politics is, we ought to be thanking people for volunteering.

  George W. Bush

  People, Volunteer, Matter

  "President Bush Discusses Midterms; War on Terror Strategy With Sean Hannity". "Hannity & Colmes", www.foxnews.com. October 30, 2006.

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• In any society freedom of thought will probably be of direct significance for a small minority. But this does not mean that anyone is competent, or ought to have power, to select those to whom this freedom is to be reserved.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Doe, Minorities

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• Judgement is given to men that they may use it. Because it may be used erroneously, are men to be told that they ought not to use it at all?

  John Stuart Mill

  Men, Use, May

  John Stuart Mill (2008). “On Liberty and Utilitarianism”, p.25, Bantam Classics

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• I ought, or I ought not, constitute the whole of morality.

  Charles Darwin

  Morality, Whole

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• People ought to quit talking to the press.

  Terry McAuliffe

  Talking, People, Quitting

  "McAuliffe Tells Penn: Stop Talking To The Press" by Sam Stein, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 28, 2008.

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• Parents usually educate their children merely in such a manner than however bad the world may be, they may adapt themselves to its present conditions. But they ought to give them an education so much better than this, that a better condition of things may thereby be brought about by the future.

  Immanuel Kant

  Children, Giving, Parent

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• If man was what he ought to be, he would be adored by the animals.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Animal, Men, Would Be

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• Writers of either gender ought to be able to do the opposite sex-that's one basic test of competence, after all.

  Julian Barnes

  Sex, Opposites, Tests

  Julian Barnes, Vanessa Guignery, Ryan Roberts (2009). “Conversations with Julian Barnes”, p.78, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• A struggle for liberty is in itself respectable and glorious. . . . When conducted with magnanimity, justice and humanity, it ought to command the admiration of every friend to human nature. But if sullied by crimes and extravagancies, it loses its respectability.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Struggle, Justice, Humanity

  Alexander Hamilton, Donald R. Hickey, Connie D. Clark (2006). “Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder”, p.88, Rowman & Littlefield

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