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Ought Quotes

“That man is formed for social life is an observation which, upon our first inquiry, presents itself immediately to our view, and our reason approves that wise and generous principle which actuated the first founders of civil government, an institution which hat its origin in the weakness of individuals, and hath for its end the strength and security of all; and so long as the means of effecting this important end are thoroughly known and religiously attended to government is one of the richest blessings to mankind, and ought to be held in the highest veneration”

“...[sacred] doctrine is especially based upon arguments from authority, inasmuch as its principles are obtained by revelation: thus we ought to believe on the authority of those to whom the revelation has been made. Nor does this take away from the dignity of this doctrine, for although the argument from authority based on human reason is the weakest, yet the argument from authority based on divine revelation is the strongest.”

Source: The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition

“Conservatism, we are told, is out-of-date. This charge is preposterous and we ought to boldly say so. The laws of God, and of nature, have no dateline. These principles are derived from the nature of man, and from the truths that God has revealed about His creation. To suggest that the Conservative philosophy is out of date is akin to saying that the Golden Rule, or the Ten Commandments or Aristotle's Politics are out of date.”

Men Philosophy Law Principles Creation Ought Ten Conservative Golden Commandments Conservatism Golden Rule Ten Commandments Nature Of Man

Author:Barry Goldwater

“It was from America that the plain ideas that men ought to mind their business, and that the nation is responsible to Heaven for the acts of the State, - ideas long locked in the breast of solitary thinkers, and hidden among Latin folios, - burst forth like a conqueror upon the world they were destined to transform, under the title of the Rights of Man... and the principle gained ground, that a nation can never abandon its fate to an authority it cannot control.”

Men World Mind Long Ideas States America Heaven Nations Principles Fate Rights Ought Authority Responsible Titles Breasts Abandon Latin Thinker Locked Solitary Destined Conqueror

Author:Lord Acton

“We ought to cherish the body. Our body's substance is not from an evil principle, as the Manicheans imagine, but from God. And therefore, we ought to cherish the body by the friendship of love, by which we love God.”

Body Evil Principles Imagine Ought Substance God Love Cherish

Author:Thomas Aquinas

“Commerce is entitled to a complete and efficient protection in all its legal rights, but the moment it presumes to control a country, or to substitute its fluctuating expedients for the high principles of natural justice that ought to lie at the root of every political system, it should be frowned on, and rebuked.”

“It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom; or that which is established because it is right, from that which is right only because it is established; that he may neither violate essential principles by a desire of novelty, nor debar himself from the attainment of beauties within his view, by a needless fear of breaking rules which no literary dictator had authority to enact.”

Writing Firsts May Desire Views Principles Ought Essentials Authority Customs Dictator Novelty Attainment Endeavour Breaking Rules Beauty Within

Book:Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings

Source: Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings

“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

“No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property.”

Ifs Doe Hands Government Lasts Accepting Principles Ought Property Consent Sovereignty Consent Of The Governed

Book:Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-president

Source: Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-president

“It must be assumed and established as a principle, that the right of private property must be regarded as sacred. Wherefore, the law ought to favor this right and, so far as it can, see that the largest possible number among the masses of the population prefer to own property.... But if the productive activity of the multitude can be stimulated by the hope of acquiring some property... , it will gradually come to pass that, with the difference between extreme wealth and extreme penury removed, one class will become the neighbor to the other.”

Ifs Wisdom Law Differences Wealth Numbers Class Principles Ought Activity Mass Sacred Property Population Extremes Neighbor Favors Productive Multitudes Private Property

Author:Pope Leo XIII

“Unlike proportionality, progression provides no principle which tells us what the relative burden of different persons ought to be the argument based on the presumed justice of progression provides no limitation, as has often been admitted by its supporters, before all incomes above a certain figure are confiscated, and those below left untaxed.”

Persons Different Certain Left Justice Principles Figures Ought Argument Burden Income Limitation Relative Supporter Progression Proportionality

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“The principle of the brotherhood of man is narcissistic... for the grounds for that love have always been the assumption that we ought to realize that we are the same the whole world over.”

Men World Love Whole Realizing Principles Ought Whole World Assumption Brotherhood Narcissistic Brotherhood Of Man

Book:the female eunuch

Source: the female eunuch

“If the title of a great man ought to be reserved for him who cannot be charged with an indiscretion or a vice, who spent his life in establishing the independence, the glory and durable prosperity of his country; who succeeded in all that he undertook, and whose successes were never won at the expense of justice, integrity, or by the sacrifice of a single principle--this title will not be denied to Washington.”

Ifs Men Country Justice Principles Sacrifice Greatness Ought Integrity Glory Independence Prosperity Vices Titles Great Men Expenses Denied Reserved

Book:The Life of George Washington by Jared Sparks

Source: The Life of George Washington by Jared Sparks

“Books, of which the principles are diseased or deformed, must be kept on the shelf of the scholar, as the man of science preserves monsters in glasses. They belong to the study of the mind's morbid anatomy, and ought to be accurately labelled. Voltaire will still be a wit, notwithstanding he is a scoffer; and we may admire the brilliant spots and eyes of the viper, if we acknowledge its venom and call it a reptile.”

“One ought to be against racism and sexism because they are wrong, not because one is black or one is female.”

Black Principles Ought Racism Female Sexism Against Racism

Author:Eleanor Holmes Norton

“All to whom want is terrible, upon whatever principle, ought to think themselves obliged to learn the sage maxims of our parsimonious ancestors, and attain the salutary arts of contracting expense; for without economy none can be rich, and with it few can be poor.”

Thinking Want Art Poor Principles Economy Rich Ought Terrible Expenses Ancestor Sage Maxims Obliged Contracting

Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius

“I have observed gratitude to be a principle, that bears the smallest share in the hearts of those where it ought to be most strongly resident, so that I begin to imagine one half of the world don't understand the real etymology of the word.”

World Heart Real Half Principles Imagine Share Bears Ought Gratitude Smallest Residents One Half Etymology

Author:Charlotte Charke

“The laws are, and ought to be, relative to the constitution, and not the constitution to the laws. A constitution is the organization of offices in a state, and determines what is to be the governing body, and what is the end of each community. But laws are not to be confounded with the principles of the constitution; they are the rules according to which the magistrates should administer the state, and proceed against offenders.”

Should Ends States Body Law Community Principles Ought Office Organization Constitution Determine Relative Governing Offenders Magistrates

Book:Aristotle

Source: Aristotle

“The diffusion of information and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration.”

Reason Government Principles Information Ought Shapes Essentials Abuse Bars Administration Diffusion

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“The scope of modern government in what it can and ought to accomplish for its people has been widened far beyond the principles laid down by the old "laissez faire" school of political rights, and the widening has met popular approval.”

People Has Beens Government School Political Principles Rights Modern Ought Mets Accomplish Approval Scope Laissez Faire Political Rights

Author:William Howard Taft

“The fact is that pictures which are unlike reality ought not be approved, and even if they are technically fine, this is no reason why they should offhand be judged to be correct, if their subject is lacking in the principles of reality carried out with no violations.”

Ifs Should Reason Facts Reality Principles Subjects Fine Ought Reason Why No Reason Judged Lacking Violation Approved

Author:Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

“Rules of property ought to be generally known, and not to be left upon loose notes, which rather serve to confound principles, than to confirm them.”

Left Known Principles Ought Property Notes

Author:William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

“The Fundamental Principle that governs - or ought to govern -human affairs if we wish to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, or pointless utopias, is negotiation.”

Ifs Humans Wish Principles Ought Conflict Fundamentals Affair Negotiation Misunderstanding Utopia Pointless Fundamental Principles

Author:Umberto Eco

“... we ought even to hold as a fixed principle that what I see white I believe to be black, if the superior authorities define it to be so.”

Ifs Believe I Believe Black White Principles Ought Authority Superiors Fixed

Author:Ignatius of Loyola

“Just supposing for the sake of the argument that there is a being of such a kind as that He may with any propriety be called "God", it does seem antecedently very improbable that weak and limited creatures of a day, such as we are, should discover Him by our own efforts.... who could be discovered in that way would hardly be worth discovering. I think we ought to stick to that principle rather firmly. I think we ought to be rather sure that we cannot know God unless God has been pleased to reveal Himself to us.”

Thinking Knows Way Should Kind May Doe Has Beens Seems Effort Principles Ought Creatures Argument Weak Sticks Sake Discovering Knowing God Improbable Propriety Supposing

Author:John Gresham Machen

“Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles; he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”

Men Looks Principles Ought Discovery

Book:Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion

Source: Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion

“Our decisions need not be seen as resting on procedures that are merely instrumental in making judgments that are reliably truth-tracking. The procedures might be more directly related than that to truths about what is right or good, or about what we ought to do, or to principles that tell us what is true about these matters. And I have no metaphysical theory about the truth-conditions of such truths, except to say that as objective truths, they must be independent of the attitudes, decisions or actions that they are supposed to justify or for which they are to offer reasons.”

“We ought to be respecting the principle of equality.”

Principles Ought

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“The value of "one person, one vote," the value of equality, is a value that was given to us more than 50 years ago as a central part of our constitutional tradition. So, under that principle, we ought to be applying the same standard today that I would have said we should have applied a year ago.”

Should Years Persons Said Today Values Given Principles Ought Standards Years Ago Tradition Should Have Vote

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“One thing that you and I know is language. Another thing that you and I know is how objects behave in perceptual space. We have a whole mass of complex ways of understanding what is the nature of visual space. A proper part of psychology ought to be, and in recent years has been, an effort to try to discover the principles of how we organize visual space. I would say that the same is true of every domain of psychology, of human studies.”

Knows Way Trying Years Humans Has Beens Whole Language Understanding Space Effort Principles Study Psychology One Thing Objects Ought Mass Complexes Behave Visuals Organize Domain

Author:Noam Chomsky

“A man's minor actions and arrangements ought to be free, flexible, creative; the things that should be unchangeable are his principles, his ideals. But with us the reverse is true; our views change constantly; but our lunch does not change. Now, I should like men to have strong and rooted conceptions, but as for their lunch, let them have it sometimes in the garden, sometimes in bed, sometimes on the roof, sometimes in the top of a tree. Let them argue from the same first principles, but let them do it in a bed, or a boat, or a balloon.”

“The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.”

Form Law Moral Principles Ought Bases Constitution Scripture Our Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Christian Moral Principles Moral Law Christian Heritage Religion And Government

Book:History of the United States: to which is prefixed a brief historical account of our [English] ancestors, from the dispersion at Babel, to their migration to America, and of the conquest of South America, by the Spaniards

Source: History of the United States: to which is prefixed a brief historical account of our [English] ancestors, from the dispersion at Babel, to their migration to America, and of the conquest of South America, by the Spaniards