Best ought & character Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“We ought to be very cautious in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty, and may be the origin of a number of petty acts of tyranny if the legislator be not on his guard; for as such an accusation does not bear directly on the overt acts of a citizen, but refers to the idea we entertain of his character.”

“Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they are 'the best of kings'. It is their power, their splendour, it is the apprehension of the personal consequences of their favour or their hatred that dazzles the imagination and suspends the judgement of their favourites or their vassals; but death cancels the bond of allegiance and of interest; and seen AS THEY WERE, their power and their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous.”

Source: Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

“He [the artist] ought to have 'these powerful organs of expression' - colour and chiaroscuro - entirely at his command, that he may use them in every possible form, as well as that he may do with the most perfect freedom; therefore, whether he wishes to make the subject of a joyous, solemn, or meditative character, by flinging over it the cheerful aspect which the sun bestows, by a proper disposition of shade, or by the appearances that beautify its arising or its setting, a true "General Effect" should never be lost sight of.”

“Some men -- not all men -- see always before them an ideal, a mental picture if you will, of what they ought to be, and are not. Whoso seeks to follow this ideal revealed to the mental vision, whoso seeks to attain to conformity with it, will find it enlarge itself, and remove from him. He that follows it will improve his own moral character, but the ideal will remain always above him and before him, prompting him to new exertions.”

Ifs Men Character Moral Vision He Man Ought Ideals Remove Conformity Idealism Exertion Moral Character

Book:The blazing star; with an appendix treating of the Jewish Kabbala, also a tract on the philosophy of H. Spencer, and one on New-England transcendentalism

Source: The blazing star; with an appendix treating of the Jewish Kabbala, also a tract on the philosophy of H. Spencer, and one on New-England transcendentalism

“Man, having an ideal before him of that which he ought to be, and is not, and acting as though he possessed the character he ought to have, but has not, comes, by the very virtue of his aspiration, to possess the character he imagines.”

Men Character Acting Virtue Imagine Ought Ideals Aspiration Possessed

Author:William Batchelder Greene

“The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.”

Character Ought Aim Chiefs Formation

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The higher mental development of woman, the less possible it is for her to meet a congenial male who will see in her, not only sex, but also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her character.”

Humans Character Strong Sex Loses Human Beings Development Ought Higher Males Individuality Individualism Traits Comrade

Book:Anarchism and Other Essays

Source: Anarchism and Other Essays

“Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the character of the age.”

Book Character Age Form Ought Authority

Book:Maxims and opinions, moral, political and economical, with characters, from the works of ... Edmund Burke

Source: Maxims and opinions, moral, political and economical, with characters, from the works of ... Edmund Burke

“Our friends should be our incentives to right, but not only our guiding, but our prophetic, stars. To love by right is much, to love by faith is more; both are the entire love, without which heart, mind, and soul cannot be alike satisfied. We love and ought to love one another, not merely for the absolute worth of each, but on account of a mutual fitness of temporary character.”

Should Mind Heart Soul Character Stars Friends Ought Accounts Absolutes Satisfied Mutual Temporary Incentives Love One Another Prophetic Heart Mind And Soul

Author:Margaret Fuller

“Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character.”

Ifs Writing Mind Firsts Character Light Style Ought Faithful Copies

Book:Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art

Source: Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art

“"My comfort is," said Susan, looking back at Mr. Dombey, "that I have told a piece of truth this day which ought to have been told long before and can't be told too often or too plain..."”

Long Has Beens Said Character Interesting Pieces Ought Comfort This Day Looking Back Interesting Characters

Book:Dombey and Son ... With frontispiece by H. K. Browne

Source: Dombey and Son ... With frontispiece by H. K. Browne

“Why am I always at war with myself? Why have I told, as if upon compulsion, what I knew all along I ought to have withheld? Why am I making a friend of this woman beside me, in spite of the whispers against her that I hear in my heart?”

Ifs Heart War Character Interesting Ought My Heart Spite Compulsion Interesting Characters

Book:Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].

Source: Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].

“Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.”