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Ought Quotes

“Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea of what is a large and what a small state.... To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements; for none of these retain their natural power when they are too large or too small, but they either wholly lose their nature, or are spoiled.”

Ifs Thinking Persons Ideas States Order Loses Natural Animal Ought Limits Plant Size No Idea Consumerism Spoiled Overconsumption

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“The painter or draftsman ought to be solitary, in order that the well-being of the body not sap the vigour of the mind.”

Mind Wells Body Order Ought Solitude Painter Well Being Solitary Sap Draftsman

Author:Leonardo da Vinci

“In order not to be astonished at obtaining victories, one ought not to think only of defeats.”

Thinking Order Ought Victory Defeat Obtaining

Book:Napoleon in his own words from the French of Jules Bertaut

Source: Napoleon in his own words from the French of Jules Bertaut

“In order to be able thus to misjudge, and thus to grant left-handed veneration to our classics, people must have ceased to know them. This, generally speaking, is precisely what has happened. For, otherwise, one ought to know that there is only one way of honoring them, and that is to continue seeking with the same spirit and with the same courage, and not to weary of the search.”

People Knows Way Able Spirit Order Left Happened Ought Seeking One Way Grants Weary Veneration Left Handed

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche

“Surely, God could have caused birds to fly with their bones made of solid gold, with their veins full of quicksilver, with their flesh heavier than lead, and with their wings exceedingly small. He did not, and that ought to show something. It is only in order to shield your ignorance that you put the Lord at every turn to the refuge of a miracle.”

Made Shows Order Turns Lord Ignorance Ought Bird Gold Miracle Wings Bones Flesh Refuge Veins Shields

Author:Galileo Galilei

“Real cities have something else, some individual bony structure under the muck. Los Angeles has Hollywood -- and hates it. It ought to consider itself damn lucky. Without Hollywood it would be a mail order city. Everything in the catalogue you could get better somewhere else.”

Real Would Be Hate Order Individual Cities Ought Lucky Hollywood Structure Damn Get Better Los Angeles Mail Somewhere Else Catalogues

Book:The Little Sister: A Novel

Source: The Little Sister: A Novel

“Perhaps the artist who seeks dignity above all in his 'historia', ought to represent very few figures; for as paucity of words imparts majesty to a prince, provided histhoughts and orders are understood, so the presence of only the strictly necessary numbers of bodies confers dignity on a picture.”

Body Artist Order Numbers Figures Ought Understood Dignity Majesty Impart

Author:Leon Battista Alberti

“We ought to be able to persuade on opposite sides of a question; as also we ought in the case of arguing by syllogism: not that we should practice both, for it is not right to persuade to what is bad; but in order that the bearing of the case may not escape us, and that when another makes an unfair use of these reasonings, we may be able to solve them.”

Should May Use Able Order Sides Practice Cases Ought Opposites Solve Arguing Reasoning Unfair

Author:Aristotle

“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.”

Knows Men Trying Humans Long Ideas Use Order Leader Ought Normal Accounts Faults Endure Affair Stupidity Factors Inevitable Encounters Attempting Find Me Assistants True Leader

Author:Andre Maurois

“Every selfish motive therefore, every family attachment, ought to recommend such a system of policy as would provide no less carefully for the rights and happiness of the lowest than of the highest orders of Citizens.”

Order Rights Policy Ought Citizens Highest Selfish Motive Attachment Lowest Selfish Motives

Author:George Mason

“Today we know not only that there is a terrible amount of disorder in the heavens - great catastrophes or conflagrations occur frequently - but evolution gives us a perfectly natural explanation of such order as there is. No distinguished astronomer now traces "the finger of God" in the heavens; and astronomers ought to know best.”

Knows Giving Today Order Heaven Natural Atheism Ought Evolution Amount Terrible Fingers Explanation Disorder Catastrophe Distinguished Astronomers Perfectly Natural

Book:The Story of Religious Controversy

Source: The Story of Religious Controversy

“You're a big boy, you ought to understand that punctual transport, public order and safe streets, polite people and good medical services are all the achievements of dictatorship.”

People Bigs Order Boys Streets Ought Safe Achievement Medical Dictatorship Polite Transport Punctual

Book:The New Watch: (Night Watch 5)

Source: The New Watch: (Night Watch 5)

“The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason itself is an illusion. As Ethan Allen said Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are labouring to dethrone. If they argue without reason, which they must do, in order to be consistent with themselves, they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.”

Ifs Made Said Sometimes Reason Science Order Principles Ought Illusion Deserve Argument Claims Conviction Arguing Rational Consistent Irrational Arbitrary

Author:Carl Sagan

“Two things seemed pretty apparent to me. One was that in order to be a pilot a man had to learn more than any one man ought to learn; and the other was that he must learn it all over again in a different way every 24 hours.”

Men Way Two Different Order Hours Ought Different Ways Two Things One Man Pilots

Book:Life on the Mississippi (Volume 1 of 3 ) (EasyRead Super Large 24pt Edition)

Source: Life on the Mississippi (Volume 1 of 3 ) (EasyRead Super Large 24pt Edition)

“Minds that are stupid and incapable of science are in the order of nature to be regarded as monsters and other extraordinary phenomena; minds of this sort are rare. Hence I conclude that there are great resources to be found in children, which are suffered to vanish with their years. It is evident, therefore, that it is not of nature, but of our own negligence, we ought to complain.”

Years Mind Children Order Found Education Stupid Ought Resources Extraordinary Complaining Monsters Incapable Evident Negligence

Author:Quintilian

“We waited for Congress to act. They couldn't act on the issue. So I just went ahead and signed an executive order which will unleash - [applause] - which says the federal agencies will not discriminate against faith-based programs. They ought to welcome the armies of compassion as opposed to turning them away.”

Humor Political Order Compassion Issues Ought Program Army Congress Welcome Agency Executives Applause Political Humor Faith Based Executive Orders

Author:George W. Bush

“But prosperity, and the happy issue of events, ought also to be attributed to his grace, in order that he may always receive the praise which he deserves, that of being a merciful Father, and an impartial Judge. About the close of the psalm, he inveighs against those ungodly men who will not acknowledge God's hand, amid such palpable demonstrations of his providence.”

Men May Hands Order Father Issues Grace Events Judging Ought Deserve Praise Prosperity Acknowledge Providence Demonstration Merciful Psalms

Book:Commentary on Psalms

Source: Commentary on Psalms

“It ought to be remembered by all [that] the Games more than 2,000 years ago started as a means of bringing peace between the Greek city-states. And in those days, even if a war was going on, they called off the war in order to hold the Games. I wish we were still as civilized.”

Ifs Years Mean Stills War States Order Games Wish Peace Cities Ought Years Ago Remembered Greek Civilized Bringing Peace Be Remembered By

Book:Ronald Reagan

Source: Ronald Reagan

“I don't believe that murders can be "solved." I think that this is the big lie of the mystery novel, that you should close the book and feel that the world is back in order and everything's all right. I want the reader to know that the world is not all right, and maybe we ought to do something about it.”

Thinking Knows World Want Feels Should Believe Book Bigs Lying Order Novel Mystery Ought Reader Murder Don't Believe Mystery Novels

Author:George Pelecanos

“Evil is thus a kind of parasite on goodness. If there were no good by which to measure things, evil could not exist. Men sometimes forget this, and say, there is so much evil in the world that there cannot be a God. They are forgetting that, if there were no God, they would have no way of distinguishing evil from goodness. The very concept of evil admits and recognizes a Standard, a Whole, a Rule, an Order. Nobody would say that his automobile was out of order if he did not have a conception of how an automobile ought to run.”

Ifs Men World Way Kind Sometimes Whole Running Order Evil Forget Ought Goodness Standards Concepts Conception Automobile Parasites Sure Thing

Author:Fulton J. Sheen

“Man is clearly made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. And the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our Author and our end.”

Thinking Men Made Ends Whole Order Human Nature Duty Ought Dignity Merit Thoughtful

Author:Blaise Pascal

“Order in a house ought to be like the machinery in opera, whose effect produces great pleasure, but whose ends must be hid.”

Ends Order House Pleasure Effects Produce Ought Opera Machinery

Author:Suzanne Curchod

“The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ... ought never to be adopted, till after having been long and carefully examined ... with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men ... who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public.”

Men Long Different Law Order Interest Attention Ought Opposites Regulation Deceiving Commerce Businessman Adopted Suspicious Proposal Wealth Of Nations

Author:Adam Smith

“Such regulations may, no doubt, be considered as in some respect a violation of natural liberty. But those exertions of the natural liberty of a few individuals, which might endanger the security of the whole society, are, and ought to be, restrained by the laws of all governments; of the most free, as well as or the most despotical. The obligation of building party walls, in order to prevent the communication of fire, is a violation of natural liberty, exactly of the same kind with the regulations of the banking trade which are here proposed.”

Source: An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

“Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful.”

Ifs Mean Littles Christian Order Christ Church Successful Grace Failing Ought Prove Chiefs Being Successful Christian Family Family Education

Book:The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Volume I - I

Source: The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Volume I - I

“Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency.”

Men Government Order Cases Particular Ought Instruments Smallest Employed Wretched Pretension

Book:An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

Source: An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

“I've done movies in the past that have so many characters and I find it's very hard to follow all these stories. You end up not caring about any of the people and I thought that would be the case in this film, and you had these big speeches for each character, you know, it's like "God that's how you'll have to cut that down in order to paste it all", to edit the movie and my representatives could say "no, you really you ought to check it out.”

People Knows Ends Hard Done Character Stories Bigs Would Be Past Film Order Cases Cutting Ought Speech Caring Checks Representatives Edits Not Caring

Author:Jeff Bridges

“Let us never lose courage or despair of God's mercy. We have only to humble ourselves before God in order to obtain grace to become all that we ought to be.”

Order Loses Grace Ought Despair Mercy Humble

Author:Rose Philippine Duchesne

“Religion's greatest "sin" lies in displacing human endeavor, thought, time, resources and efforts from this world, our only world, in order to exalt a highly unlikely, unknowable, unseeable, unprovable and unbelievable pretend afterworld. The only afterlife that ought to concern us is leaving our descendants (along with the other animals and life we share our planet with) a secure and pleasant future.”

World Humans Lying Order Sin Animal Effort Share This World Planets Ought Resources Concern Leaving Secure Pleasant Endeavor Afterlife Unbelievable Unlikely Our Planet Descendants

Author:Annie Laurie Gaylor

“I do conscientiously and sincerely believe that the Order of Freemasonry, if not the greatest, is one of the greatest moral and political evils under which the Union is now laboring ... a conspiracy of the few against the equal rights of the many ...Masonry ought forever to be abolished. It is wrong - essentially wrong - a seed of evil, which can never produce any good.”

Ifs Believe Political Order Evil Moral Forever Rights Produce Ought Equal Unions Seeds Conspiracy Sincerely Equal Rights Masonry Freemasonry

Author:John Quincy Adams

“The interests of the States... ought to be made joint in every possible instance in order to cultivate the idea of our being one nation, and to multiply the instances in which the people shall look up to Congress as their head.”

People Looks Made Ideas States Order Nations Interest Ought Congress Instance Look Up Joints

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private : published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private : published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State

“If we could sufficiently understand the order of the universe, we should find that it exceeds all the desires of the wisest men, and that it is impossible to make it better than it is, not only as a whole and in general but also for ourselves in particular, if we are attached, as we ought to be, to the Author of all, not only as to the architect and efficient cause of our being, but as to our master and to the final cause, which ought to be the whole aim of our will, and which can alone make our happiness.”

Ifs Men Should Whole Desire Order Universe Causes Impossible Particular Masters Ought Aim Finals Architect Efficient Exceed Wisest Wisest Man

Author:Gottfried Leibniz

“If we decide rightly what to do, or use a correct procedure for making such decisions, that has to be because the decisions or the procedure rest on good reasons, and these reasons consist in the apprehension of truths about what we ought to do. Because these truths must constitute reasons for our decisions, and because in the rational order, reasons must always precede the decisions based on them, the truth conditions of claims about what we ought to cannot be reduced to, or constructed out of, decisions about what to do, or procedures for making such decisions.”

Ifs Reason Use Order Decision Conditions Ought Claims Rational Procedures Apprehension

Author:Allen W. Wood

“I absolutely do believe that we need to not be so myopic. We ought to throw open widely the windows on the world in order to learn more about it.”

World Needs Believe Order Ought Window Myopic

Author:Maya Soetoro-Ng

“They ought to put out the eyes of painters as they do goldfinches in order that they can sing better.”

Eye Artist Order Ought Painter Goldfinches

Book:A Picasso bestiary

Source: A Picasso bestiary

“The engineer, and more generally the designer, is concerned with how things ought to be - how they ought to be in order to attain goals, and to function.”

Order Goal Ought Concerned Function Designer Engineers

Author:Herbert Simon

“Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death - ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.”

“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine. (12 May 1780)”

Giving May Children War Philosophy Order Politics Natural Liberty Learning Study Painting Son Ought Architecture My Son Commerce Agriculture Geography Tapestry Naval Navigation Natural History

Author:John Adams