Ought Quotes - Page 4

• A sound does not view itself as thought, as ought, as needing another sound for its elucidation, as etc.; it has not time for any consideration--it is occupied with the performance of its characteristics: before it has died away it must have made perfectly exact its frequency, its loudness, its length, its overtone structure, the precise morphology of these and of itself.

  John Cage

  Views, Sound, Doe

  John Cage (2010). “Silence: Lectures and Writings”, p.28, Wesleyan University Press

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• We shall not busy ourselves with what men ought to have admired, what they ought to have written, what they ought to have thought, but with what they did think, write, admire.

  George Saintsbury

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  "A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Texts to the Present Day" by George Saintsbury, the first US edition; New York: Dodd, Meads, (Vol. 1, pp. 4-5), (1900-04).

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• If it is true ... that no one has a life worth thinking about whose life story cannot be told, does it not then follow that life could be, even ought to be, lived as a story, that what one has to do in life is to make the story come true?

  Hannah Arendt

  Life, Thinking, Doe

  Hannah Arendt, Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb (2007). “Reflections on Literature and Culture”, p.271, Stanford University Press

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• For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading. In the dispersed sovereignty of modern states, and especially in times of rapid social change, law must look to the future as well as to history and precedent, and to what is possible and right as well as to what is actual.

  William Ernest Hocking

  Views, Law, Light

  "Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights". Book by William Ernest Hocking, Preface (20 May 1926), p. vii, 1926.

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• The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not — we will not — travel down that hellish path blindly.

  Barack Obama

  War, Sacrifice, Defense

  Barack Obama (2008). “An American Story: The Speeches of Barack Obama : a Primer”, Independent Publishing Group

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• Let us reach for the world that ought to be -- that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls.

  Barack Obama

  Soul, World, Sparks

  Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech and Lecture, delivered 10 December 2009, Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway

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• Toleration in religion was one of the great rights of man, and a man ought never to be deprived of what was his natural right.

  Charles James Fox

  Men, Rights, Natural

  "The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. C. J. Fox in the House of Commons. Volume IV" edited by J. Wright, (p. 192), 1815.

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• We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.

  George W. Bush

  War, Israel, Iran

  "Sen. Lieberman Backs U.S. Action Against Iran". Interview with Robert Siegel, www.npr.org. November 2, 2007.

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• What we Republicans should stand for is growth in the economy. We ought to make the pie higher.

  George W. Bush

  Pie, Growth, Republican

  Republican Presidential Candidates Debate in Columbia, South Carolina, www.presidency.ucsb.edu. February 15, 2000.

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• One good Man may take another's Word, if they so agree, but a whole Nation ought never to trust to any Honesty, but what is built upon Necessity; for unhappy is the People, and their Constitution will be ever precarious, whose Welfare must depend upon the Virtues and Consciences of Ministers and Politicians.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Honesty, Men, People

  "The Fable of the Bees". Book by Bernard Mandeville. Remark Q, pp. 207-208, 1732.

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• I think men of science as well as other men need to learn from Christ, and I think Christians whose minds are scientific are bound to study science that their view of the glory of God may be as extensive as their being is capable. But I think that the results which each man arrives at in his attempts to harmonize his science with his Christianity ought not to be regarded as having any significance except to the man himself, and to him only for a time, and should not receive the stamp of a society.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Christian, Men, Thinking

  James Clerk Maxwell (2002). “The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell:”, p.188, Cambridge University Press

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• Our doubts about ourselves cannot be banished except by working at that which is the one and only thing we know we ought to do. Other people's assertions cannot silence the howling dirge within us. It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream.

  Eric Hoffer

  Self, People, Silence

  "Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in Harper's Magazine, July 2005.

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• Every wife ought to answer for her man. If the husband be engaged in a seditious club, or drinks mysterious healths, or be frugal of his candles on a rejoicing night, let her look to him and keep him out of harm's way; or the world will be apt to say, she has a mind to be a widow before her time. She ought, in such cases, to exert the authority of the curtain lecture; and if she finds him of a rebellious disposition, to tame him, as they do birds of prey, by dinning him in the ears all night long.

  Joseph Addison

  Husband, Night, Men

  Joseph Addison, Thomas Tickell (1811). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: With the Exception of His Numbers of the Spectator”, p.48

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• There are a sort of knight-errants in the world, who, quite contrary to those in romance, are perpetually seeking adventures to bring virgins into distress, and to ruin innocence. When men of rank and figure pass away their lives in these criminal pursuits and practices, they ought to consider that they render themselves more vile and despicable than any innocent man can be, whatever low station his fortune or birth have placed him in.

  Joseph Addison

  Adventure, Men, Knights

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.138

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• I have so many liver spots, I ought to come with a side of onions.

  Phyllis Diller

  Funny, Onions, Sides

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• Stupidity is a factor to be reckoned with in human affairs. The true leader always expects to encounter it, and prepares to endure it patiently so long as it is normal stupidity. He knows that his ideas will be distorted, his orders carelessly executed; and that there will be jealousy among his assistants. He takes these inevitable phenomena into account, and instead of attempting to find men without faults, who are non-existent, he tries to make use of the best men at his disposal - as they are, and not as they ought to be.

  Andre Maurois

  Men, Order, Ideas

  "The Art of Living". Book by Andre Maurois, 1939.

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• There is no man ... however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived a life, the memory of which is so unpleasant to him that he would gladly expunge it. And yet he ought not entirely to regret it, because he cannot be certain that he has indeed become a wise man -- so far as it is possible for any of us to be wise -- unless he has passed through all the fatuous or unwholesome incarnations by which that ultimate stage must be preceded.

  Marcel Proust

  Wise, Wisdom, Memories

  Marcel Proust (2015). “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In Search of Lost Time”, p.481, Yale University Press

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• We ought at least, from prudence, never to speak of ourselves, because that is a subject on which we may be sure that other people's views are never in accordance with our own.

  Marcel Proust

  Views, People, May

  Marcel Proust (2006). “Remembrance of Things Past”, p.674, Wordsworth Editions

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• Persons who think there is no such thing as luck good or bad are entitled to their opinion, although I think they ought to be shot for it.

  Mark Twain

  Thinking, Luck, Opinion

  Mark Twain, Harriet Elinor Smith (2012). “Autobiography of Mark Twain: Reader's Edition”, p.253, Univ of California Press

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• from the beginning of my sojourn in this world there was a persistent vacancy in me where the industry ought to be. (Ought to was is better, perhaps, though the most of the authorities differ as to this.

  Mark Twain

  Vacancy, World, Authority

  Mark Twain (2013). “Autobiography of Mark Twain”, p.46, Univ of California Press

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• Summoning artists to participate In the august occasions of the state Seems something artists ought to celebrate. Today is for my cause a day of days.

  Robert Frost

  Artist, August, Today

  1961 'For John F Kennedy: His Inauguration', 20 Jan. Snowblindness prevented the aged poet from reading beyond the first three lines on the occasion.

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• We must now examine whether just people also live better and are happier than unjust ones. I think it's clear already that this is so, but we must look into it further, since the argument concerns no ordinary topic, but the way we ought to live.

  Plato

  Thinking, People, Looks

  Republic, bk.1, 352d (translated by GM AGrube, revised by C D C Reeve).

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• Anyone who knows of a provable instance of colour discrimination ought always to expose it.

  George Orwell

  Discrimination, Colour, Instance

  George Orwell (1968). “The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: As I please, 1943-1945”

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• Christ ought to be preached with this goal in mind--that we might be moved to faith in him so that he is not just a distant historical figure but actually Christ for you and me.

  Martin Luther

  Goal, Historical, Mind

  Martin Luther (2012). “Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings”, p.860, Fortress Press

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• We ought not to criticize, explain, or judge the Scriptures by our mere reason, but diligently, with prayer, meditate thereon, and seek their meaning.

  Martin Luther

  Prayer, Judging, Scripture

  Martin Luther, Alexander Chalmers (1857). “The Table Talk of Martin Luther”, p.2

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