Ought Quotes - Page 22

• What evil is there in seeing a man possess a woman? Why, the beasts would be more free than we! It seems to me that that which is given us by nature for our own preservation ought to be worn round the neck as a pendant and in the hat for a medal.

  Pietro Aretino

  Men, Evil, Hats

  "Pietro Aretino, the scourge of princes" by Edward Hutton, (p. 65), 1922.

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• In all cases where incidental powers are acted upon, the principal and incidental ought to be congenial with each other, and partake of a common nature. The incidental power ought to be strictly subordinate and limited to the end proposed to be obtained by the specified power. In other words, under the name of accomplishing one object which is specified, the power implied ought not to be made to embrace other objects, which are not specified in the constitution.

  Henry Clay

  Names, Common, Constitution

  Henry Clay (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: The Rising Statesman, 1797-1814”, p.531, University Press of Kentucky

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• I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law.

  Immanuel Kant

  Law, Als, Way

  "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals". Book by Immanuel Kant, 1785.

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• In general, when the imagination is at all noble, it is irresistible, and therefore those who can at all resist it ought to resist it. Be a plain topographer if you possibly can; if Nature meant you to be anything else, she will force you to it; but never try to be a prophet.

  John Ruskin

  Imagination, Trying, Noble

  John Ruskin (1873). “Modern Painters”, p.18

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• Hemans gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious men who would involve their country in civil wars, and all the evils in its train that they might reign & ride on its whirlwinds & direct the Storm The free people of these United States have spoken, and consigned these wicked demagogues to their proper doom.

  Andrew Jackson

  Country, War, Fate

  Letter to Andrew I. Crawford, May 1, 1833.

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• I foresee that man will resign himself each day to more atrocious undertakings; soon there will be no one but warriors and brigands; I give them this counsel: The author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Warrior, Past, Men

  Jorge Luis Borges, Donald A. Yates, James East Irby (1964). “Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings”, p.22, New Directions Publishing

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• It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Past, History, Cost

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1993). “Don Quixote”, p.270, Wordsworth Editions

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• Now that I've seen what war is, what civil war is, I know that everybody, if one day it should end, ought to ask himself: "And what shall we make of the fallen? Why are they dead?" I wouldn't know what to say. Not now, at any rate. Nor does it seem to me that the others know. Perhaps only dead know, and only for them is the war really over.

  Cesare Pavese

  War, One Day, Doe

  "The House on the Hill". Book by Cesare Pavese. Ending words, 1949.

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• One can aim at honor both as one ought, and more than one ought, and less than one ought. He whose craving for honor is excessive is said to be ambitious, and he who is deficient in this respect unambitious; while he who observes the mean has no peculiar name.

  Aristotle

  Mean, Names, Honor

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• Every wicked man is in ignorance as to what he ought to do, and from what to abstain, and it is because of error such as this that men become unjust and, in a word, wicked.

  Aristotle

  Ignorance, Men, Errors

  Aristotle (1869). “The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle”, p.63

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• The illustrious and noble ought to place before them certain rules and regulations, not less for their hours of leisure and relaxation than for those of business.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Relaxation, Rules And Regulations, Noble

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• Laws ought to be fashioned unto the manners and conditions of the people whom they are meant to benefit, and not imposed upon them according to the simple rule of right.

  Edmund Spenser

  Simple, Law, People

  Edmund Spenser (1890). “Ireland Under Elizabeth and James the First”, London : G. Routledge

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• The doctrine of the Declaration of Independence predicated upon the glory of man and the corresponding duty to society that the rights of citizens ought to be protected with every power and resource of the state, and a government that does any less is false to the teachings of that great document - false to the name American.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Teaching, Men, Names

  "Equal Rights". Speech by Calvin Coolidge, en.wikisource.org. 1920.

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• A man ought to be able to live on a scale commensurate with the service that he renders.

  Henry Ford

  Men, Able, Scales

  Henry Ford (2015). “My Life and Work: Top Biography”, p.9, 谷月社

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• Never trample on any soul though it may be lying in the veriest mire; for that last spark of self-respect is its only hope, its only chance; the last seed of a new and better life: the voice of God that whispers to it: "You are not what you ought to be, and you are not what you can be. You are still God's child, still an immortal soul. You may rise yet. and fight a good fight yet, and be a man once more, after the likeness of God who made you, and Christ who died for you!

  Charles Kingsley

  Children, Lying, Fighting

  Charles Kingsley (2008). “The Good News of God: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.302, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• One ought not to hoard culture. It should be adapted and infused into society as a leaven. Liberality of culture does not mean illiberality of its benefits.

  Wallace Stevens

  Mean, Doe, Culture

  "Souvenirs and Prophecies: the Young Wallace Stevens" edited by Holly Stevens, (Ch. 3), 1977.

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• The art of war is at once comprehensive and complicated; ... it demands much previous study; and ... the possession of it, in its most improved and perfect state, is always a great moment to the security of a nation. This, therefore, ought to be a serious care of every government; and for this purpose, an academy, where a regular course of instruction is given, is an obvious expedient, which different nations have successfully employed.

  George Washington

  Art, War, Government

  United States. President, George Washington, United States (1825). “The speeches, addresses and messages, of the several presidents of the United States, at the openings of Congress and at their respective inaugurations: Also, the Declaration of independence, the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's farewell address to his fellow-citizens”, p.91

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• Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.

  Epictetus

  Shapes, Reason, Disorder

  Epictetus (1866). “The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments”, p.51

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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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