Ought Quotes - Page 10

• Every apartment devoted to the circulation of the glass, may be regarded as a temple set apart for the performance of human sacrifices. And they ought to be fitted up like the ancient temples in Egypt, in a manner to show the real atrocity of the superstition that is carried on within their walls.

  Thomas Lovell Beddoes

  Wall, Real, Sacrifice

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• If you are capable of submitting to insult you ought to be insulted.

  Juvenal

  Insults You, Insulted, Ifs

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• Now, to tell my story--if not as it ought to be told, at least as I can tell it,--I must go back sixteen years, to the days when Whitbury boasted of forty coaches per diem, instead of one railway, and set forth how in its southern suburb, there stood two pleasant house side by side, with their gardens sloping down to the Whit, and parted from each other only by the high brick fruit-wall, through which there used to be a door of communication; for the two occupiers were fast friends.

  Charles Kingsley

  Wall, Book, Communication

  Charles Kingsley (1860). “Two years ago ... Third edition”, p.18

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• Between the businesse of life and the day of death, a space ought to be interposed.

  George Herbert

  Space

  George Herbert (1874). “The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose”, p.316

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• People ought to be one of two things, young or dead.

  Dorothy Parker

  Two, People, Young

  Quoted in The Sayings of Dorothy Parker, ed. S. T. Brownlow (1992)

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• Sacred interpreter of human thought,
  How few respect or use thee as they ought!
  But all shall give account of every wrong,
  Who dare dishonor or defile the tongue;
  Who prostitute it in the cause of vice,
  Or sell their glory at a market-price!

  William Cowper

  Giving, Vices, Use

  William Cowper, James Thomson (1832). “The Works of Cowper and Thompson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country. With a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson”, p.40

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• A grave aspect to a grave character is of much more consequence than the world is generally aware of; a barber may make you laugh, but a surgeon ought rather to make you cry.

  Henry Fielding

  Character, Laughing, World

  Henry Fielding (1782). “The Beauties of Fielding: Carefully Selected ... To which is Added Some Account of His Life”, p.80

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• The man who is wantonly profuse of his promises ought to sink his credit as much as a tradesman would by uttering a great number of promissory notes payable at a distant day. The truest conclusion in both cases is, that neither intend or will be able to pay. And as the latter most probably intends to cheat you of your money, so the former at least designs to cheat you of your thanks.

  Henry Fielding

  Men, Numbers, Design

  Henry Fielding (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Fielding (Illustrated)”, p.3805, Delphi Classics

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• An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.

  Henry Fielding

  Book, Giving, Gentleman

  Henry Fielding (1861). “Tom Jones”, p.51

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• Titles and mottoes to books are like escutcheons and dignities in the hands of a king. The wise sometimes condescend to accept of them; but none but a fool would imagine them of any real importance. We ought to depend upon intrinsic merit, and not the slender helps of the title.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Wise, Kings, Real

  Oliver Goldsmith (1820). “Essays and The Bee”

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• War ought to be no man's wish.

  Thomas Paine

  War, Men, Wish

  Thomas Paine (1995). “Collected Writings”, p.81, Library of America

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• When our friends are present we ought to treat them well; and when they are absent, to speak of them well.

  Epictetus

  Friends, Speak, Treats

  Epictetus, George Long (2004). “Enchiridion”, p.52, Courier Corporation

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• You ought to choose both physician and friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.

  Epictetus

  Physicians, Discrimination

  Epictetus, George Long (2004). “Enchiridion”, p.52, Courier Corporation

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• Everything has two handles; the one soft and manageable, the other such as will not endure to be touched. If then your brother do you an injury, do not take it by the hot hard handle, by representing to yourself all the aggravating circumstances of the fact; but look rather on the soft side, and extenuate it as much as is possible, by considering the nearness of the relation, and the long friendship and familiarity between you--obligations to kindness which a single provocation ought not to dissolve. And thus you will take the accident by its manageable handle.

  Epictetus

  Brother, Kindness, Two

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• Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable.

  Epictetus

  Death, Evil, Use

  Epictetus (1866). “The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments”, p.77

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• When the mind loses its feeling for elegance, it grows corrupt and groveling, and seeks in the crowd what ought to be found at home.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Home, Feelings, Mind

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans”, p.272

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• Lies are usually attempts to make everything simpler - for the liar - than it really is, or ought to be.

  Adrienne Rich

  Liars, Lying

  Adrienne Rich (2002). “Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations”, p.21, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Democracy is the healthful lifeblood which circulates through the veins and arteries, which supports the system, but which ought never to appear externally, and as the mere blood itself.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Blood, Support, Democracy

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge (1851). “Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge”, p.110

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• A nation to be great ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  States, Civilized, Nations

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2015). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria”, p.2870, e-artnow

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• Women ought not to know their own wit, because they will still be showing it, and so spoil it.

  John Selden

  Wit, Spoil, Stills

  John Selden, Richard Milward (1689). “Table Talk: Being the Discourses of John Selden”, p.152

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• I vote because it's what small-d democracy is about. Because there are places where people fight for generations and stand for hours to cast a ballot knowing what we ought to remember: that it makes a difference. Not always a big difference. Not always an immediate difference. But a difference.

  Ellen Goodman

  Fighting, Differences, Knowing

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• Shame is the proper reaction when one has purposefully violated the accepted behavior of society. Inflicting it is etiquette's response when its rules are disobeyed. The law has all kinds of nasty ways of retaliating when it is disregarded, but etiquette has only a sense of social shame to deter people from treating others in ways they know are wrong. So naturally Miss Manners wants to maintain the sense of shame. Some forms of discomfort are fully justified, and the person who feels shame ought to be dealing with removing its causes rather than seeking to relieve the symptoms.

  Judith Martin

  Law, People, Missing

  Judith Martin (1996). “Miss Manners Rescues Civilization: From Sexual Harassment, Frivolous Lawsuits, Dissing, and Other Lapses in Civility”, Crown

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• Should you happen to notice that another person is extremely tall or overweight, eats too much or declines convivial drinks, has red hair or goes about in a wheelchair, ought to get married or ought not to be pregnant -- see if you can refrain from bringing these astonishing observations to that person's attention.

  Judith Martin

  Hair, Attention, Red

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• According to the doctrine of chance, you ought to put yourself to the trouble of searching for the truth; for if you die without worshiping the True Cause, you are lost. "But," say you, "if He had wished me to worship Him, He would have left me signs of His will." He has done so; but you neglect them. Seek them, therefore; it is well worth it.

  Blaise Pascal

  Doctrine, Done, Causes

  Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pascal's Pensees”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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• The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.

  Blaise Pascal

  Atheist, Soul, Doubt

  Blaise Pascal (1829). “Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects”, p.226

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