Best ought & seems Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“The fault seems to me to have been that men have taken ancient country churches as their models and have failed to discover that between them and churches in towns there ought to be a most distinct and marked difference.”

Men Has Beens Country Seems Differences Church Taken Ought Models Towns Faults Ancient

Author:George Edmund Street

“For those whose ganglia were formed pre-TV, the mimetic deployment of pop-culture icons seems at best an annoying tic and at worst a dangerous vapidity that compromises fiction's seriousness by dating it out of the Platonic Always, where it ought to reside.”

Seems Culture Fiction Worst Dangerous Tvs Ought Dating Pops Compromise Annoying Seriousness Pop Culture Icons Deployment Platonic Tics

Author:Jonathan Lethem

“It seems to me that a great university ought to have room in it for men subscribing to every sort of idea that is currently prevalent”

Men Ideas Seems Rooms Ought University

Author:H. L. Mencken

“There are three aspects to perspective. The first has to do with how the size of objects seems to diminish according to distance: the second, the manner in which colors change the farther away they are from the eye; the third defines how objects ought to be finished less carefully the farther away they are.”

Firsts Seems Eye Three Objects Color Perspective Ought Aspect Thirds Distance Size Finished Diminish

Book:Leonardo da Vinci's advice to artists

Source: Leonardo da Vinci's advice to artists

“It often puzzles me when people think that matters connected with sex ought to be suppressed. Sex itself cannot be suppressed, and the efforts to do it, it seems to me, result in greater damage than it can do itself. After all, it was not an invention of man, but of God.”

People Thinking Men Matter Seems Sex Can Do Results Effort Greater Ought Connected Invention Damage Puzzles

Author:Maxwell Perkins

“Man ought always to have something that he prefers to life; otherwise life itself will seem to him tiresome and void.”

Men Inspirational Seems Ought Void Tiresome

Author:Johann Gottfried Seume

“There are only a few safe targets left, just a few groups of people you can say anything negative about without getting in trouble for it. I've made a list of safe targets and I probably ought to stick to those. Politicians, for instance. You can say anything you want about them, and it doesn't matter how unfair you are. People seem to like it.”

People Want Made Matter Seems Left Trouble Groups Ought Politician Safe Negative Sticks Lists Instance Target Unfair Say Anything

Author:Andy Rooney

“It seems clear to me that marriage ought to be constituted by children, and relations not involving children ought to be ignored by the law and treated as indifferent by public opinion. It is only through children that relations cease to be a purely private matter.”

Children Matter Seems Law Opinion Clear Ought Relation Cease Treated Indifferent Ignored Public Opinion Involving

Book:Autobiography

Source: Autobiography

“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.”

Men Seems Would Be Evil Given Seeing Ought Rounds Beast Necks Hats Worn Preservation Medal Pendants

Author:Pietro Aretino

“Those who professed themselves unable to believe in the reality of human progress ought to cheer themselves up, as the students under examination had conceivably been cheered up, by a short study of the Middle Ages. The hydrogen bomb, the South African Government, Chioang Kaidick, Senator McCarthy himself, would then seem a light price to pay for no longer being in the Middle Ages.”

Believe Humans Reality Light Seems Government Age Pay Study Progress Middle Students Ought South Bombs Cheer South Africa Senators Middle Ages Examination Hydrogen Human Progress Hydrogen Bomb

Book:Lucky Jim

Source: Lucky Jim

“It seems like topsy-turvyland to make reason serve the irrational. Yet that is just what it has always done, and ought always to do.”

Reason Done Seems Ought Irrational

Book:A Preface to Politics

Source: A Preface to Politics

“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.”

Ifs Knows Should Doe War Ends Seems Asks Ought One Day Rate Fallen

Author:Cesare Pavese

“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.”

People Ifs World Want War Seems Leader Like You Ought Weapons Israel Nuclear War Of The Worlds Iran World War Ii World War I Nuclear Weapons Avoiding Old People Preventing

Author:George W. Bush

“Summoning artists to participate In the august occasions of the state Seems something artists ought to celebrate. Today is for my cause a day of days.”

States Seems Today Artist Causes Ought Celebrate Occasions August Summoning

Author:Robert Frost

“Gays have become colossal bores. Once interesting and iconoclastic, all they seem to crave nowadays is the State's pension and seal of approval. They ought to go back to the days of the Stonewall Riots, when the police's violations of privacy and private property were the object of their anger and activism.”

States Seems Interesting Objects Ought Gay Police Property Activism Privacy Approval Bores Crave Violation Riot Seals Private Property Pension Colossal

Author:Ilana Mercer

“Nevertheless we have this curious spectacle: daily the trained parrot in the pulpit gravely delivers himself of these ironies, which he has acquired at second-hand and adopted without examination, to a trained congregation which accepts them without examination, and neither the speaker nor the hearer laughs at himself. It does seem as if we ought to be humble when we are at a bench-show, and not put on airs of intellectual superiority there.”

Source: Mark Twain's Fables of Man

“A good author, and one who writes carefully, often discovers that the expression of which he has been in search without being able to discover it, and which he has at last found, is that which was the most simple, the most natural, and which seems as if it ought to have presented itself at once, without effort, to the mind.”

Ifs Writing Mind Has Beens Seems Able Lasts Found Natural Simple Effort Expression Ought Good Authors

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“Sometimes it seems to me I've known so many men that the FBI ought to come to me first to compare fingerprints.”

Men Firsts Sometimes Seems Known Ought Compare Fbi Fingerprints

Author:Mae West

“People who praise illness as bringing out the best in people ought to have their heads examined. Pain forces you to think about yourself, directs your interest to your own body and what is happening to it. You don't reach out benevolently, filled with good will for others. You don't seem to care enough. Pain makes you a little person, not a big one, and not a nice one, except perhaps in the case of saints, and I've never known one.”

Source: Put out the light

“What hasty preparations we make for our future. Think of it: it seems almost tragic, the things we're sure we ought to bring along. We pack too heavy with what we hope we'll use, and too light of what we must. We thus go forth misladen, ill equipped for the dawn.”

Thinking Use Light Seems Ought Ill Heavy Preparation Dawn Tragic Our Future Packs Hasty

Book:On Such a Full Sea: A Novel

Source: On Such a Full Sea: A Novel

“I have done it [appointed commissions] regretfully and with the hope that it would be temporary. But after a commission is established you find it always wants to enlarge itself, employ more people, is very busy with Senators and Congressmen to impress upon them the great value of the services of the commission, and even when I talk to people that I appoint to commissions and tell them I would like them to go on to various boards with the idea that they may be abolished, they say they ought to be abolished, but when they have taken their position they very soon seem to change their mind.”

People Want Mind May Ideas Done Seems Would Be Values Politics Taken Position Goes On Ought Waste Busy Various Boards Temporary Senators Impress Congressman Great Value

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“[Travel seems] not just a way of having a good time, but something that every self-respecting citizen ought to undertake, like a high-fiber diet, say, or a deodorant.”

Way Self Seems Ought Citizens Diets Good Times Having A Good Time Fiber Deodorant

Author:Jan Morris

“The goal in raising one's child is to enable him, first, to discover who he wants to be, and then to become a person who can be satisfied with himself and his way of life. Eventually he ought to be able to do in his life whatever seems important, desirable, and worthwhile to him to do; to develop relations with other people that are constructive, satisfying, mutually enriching; and to bear up well under the stresses and hardships he will unavoidably encounter during his life.”

“Parents ought to feel more comfortable about the care of their children than some experts would seem to permit. If children were so fragile and parenting so difficult to learn, where would we all be as adults?”

Ifs Feels Children Seems Care Parent Difficult Ought Comfortable Adults Experts Permit Fragile

Author:Sandra Scarr

“A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.”

Should Wisdom Seems Young Wise Youth Ought Fellows Maturity Wiser Being Wise

Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author

Source: The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author

“There is a certain jargon, which, in French, I should call un Persiflage d'Affaires, that a foreign Minister ought to be perfectlymaster of, and may be used very advantageously at great entertainments, in mixed companies, and in all occasions where he must speak, and should say nothing. Well turned and well spoken, it seems to mean something, though in truth it means nothing. It is a kind of political badinage, which prevents or removes a thousand difficulties, to which a foreign Minister is exposed in mixed conversations.”

Should Wells Kind May Mean Seems Political Used Certain Speak Company Ought Thousand Conversation Difficulty Entertainment Occasions Ministers Remove Exposed Jargon All Occasions

Author:Lord Chesterfield

“Experience, however, shows that neither a state nor a bank ever have [sic] had the unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power; in all states, therefore, the issue of paper money ought to be under some check and control; and none seems so proper for that purpose as that of subjecting the issuers of paper money to the obligation of paying their notes either in gold coin or bullion.”

States Shows Seems Purpose Issues Ought Paper Gold Notes Checks Obligation Coins Paper Money All State Gold Coins

Author:David Ricardo

“Whoso neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself; it is not too little, but too great for him, that he doeth it not.”

Littles Seems Duty Ought Suspects Neglect Deceiving

Book:Maxims and gleanings from the writings of E.B. Pusey, selected by C.M.S.

Source: Maxims and gleanings from the writings of E.B. Pusey, selected by C.M.S.

“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer. The maxim is so perfectly self-evident that it would be absurd to attempt to prove it. But in the mercantile system the interest of the consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce.”

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

“I naturally believe there will be a future, but I do not waste my time imagining its radiant beauty. ... It seems to me that we ought to think first about the present. Even if the present is desperately dark, I do not wish to leave it. Will tomorrow be free from darkness? We'll talk about that tomorrow.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Believe Seems Wish Dark Darkness Ought Tomorrow Future Waste My Time Radiant Wasting My Time Radiant Beauty

Author:Lu Xun

“You seem to have quite a taste for discussing these horrible subjects," she said, rather scornfully; "you ought to have been a detective police officer.”

Has Beens Said Seems Subjects Ought Taste Police Patience Horrible Officers Detectives Discussing Police Officer

Book:Lady Audley's Secret

Source: Lady Audley's Secret

“In this real world of sweat and dirt, it seems to me that when a view of things is 'noble,' that ought to count as presumption against its truth, and as a philosophic disqualification. The prince of darkness may be a gentleman, as we are told he is, but whatever the God of earth and heaven is, he can surely be no gentleman.”

World May Real Seems Earth Heaven Views Darkness Ought Noble Gentleman Real World Sweat Dirt Presumption Philosophic Disqualification

Book:Pragmatism: Human Understanding

Source: Pragmatism: Human Understanding

“The more science learns, the clearer it is that although we are here, we shouldn't be. Once we begin considering the details of it all, the towering odds against our existence begin to become a bit unsettling. When we come to see the superlatively extreme precariousness of our existence, and begin to understand how by any accounting, we ought not to exist, what are we to think or feel? Our existence seems to be not merely a virtually impossible miracle but the most outrageous miracle conceivable, one that makes previously amazing miracles seem like almost nothing.”

Thinking Feels Seems Bits Existence Impossible Ought Miracle Details Extremes Odds Considering Outrageous Accounting

Book:Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life

Source: Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life

“Caesar was too old, it seems to me, to go off and amuse himself conquering the world. Such a pastime was all right for Augustus and Alexander; they were young men, not easily held in check, but Caesar ought to have been more mature.”

Men World Has Beens Seems Young Ought Checks Conquer Young Man Mature Pastime Augustus

Book:Human Happiness

Source: Human Happiness

“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

“It seems to me that instead of cutting taxes, we ought to be increasing the taxes to pay off the deficit, rather than let that thing build up to the point where our grandchildren's grandchildren are going to be paying for our period of time and our years at the helm.”

Years Seems Pay Cutting Ought Periods Taxes Grandchildren Deficit Helm

Author:Walter Cronkite

“A lot of our fellow liberals ... seem to me rather to doom themselves to futility in public affairs because the won't recognize that there's a zone of natural affection midway between the inner, or family one, and the outer, or all-humanity one. I suppose they are somehow short of a zone themselves and they seem to get vexed... The common man knows better, just as he'd know better if some philosopher told him he ought not to make invidious distinctions by feeding his own children in preference to others. But of course he can't explain; he just ... goes on feeding the kids.”

“Among the things she said: "Women seem to possess all the natural gifts essential to a good portraitist ... such as personality, patience and intuition. The sitter ought to be the predominating factor in a successful portrait. Men portraitist are apt to forget this; they are inclined to lose the sitter in a maze of technique luxuriating in the cleverness and beauty of their own medium."”

Men Said Seems Loses Natural Forget Successful Personality Ought Essentials Intuition Technique Factors Mediums Portraits Cleverness Mazes Natural Gifts

Author:Whitney Otto

“What is it between Obama and Iran? That's the question we all ought to have. Because it sure seems to me like Obama's got some sort of affection for that nation.”

Seems Nations Ought Affection Iran

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“Of course, no one should be trapped in bad schools or bad neighborhoods. No one. But I think we need to be asking a larger question: How do we change the norm, the larger context that people seem to accept as a given? Are we so thoroughly resigned to what "is" that we cannot even begin a serious conversation about how to create what ought to be?”

People Thinking Needs Should Seems School Courses Given Accepting Serious Ought Conversation Asking Neighborhood Trapped Norm Resigned

Author:Michelle Alexander

“It seems to me divorce is so common now. It ought to be more institutionalized. It's like a head-on collision every time. It's supposed to be a surprise but it's commonplace.”

Seems Common Ought Surprise Divorce Supposed To Be Commonplace Collision

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“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.”

“You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail.”

Knows Seems Might Answers Failing Ought Tricks Ashamed Colonels Catch 22 Important

Author:Joseph Heller

“People think six is a great many, when it's children. ...they don't mind six pairs of boots, or six pounds of apples, or six oranges, especially in equations, but they seem to think that you ought not to have five brothers and sisters.”

People Thinking Mind Children Seems Five Brother Ought Six Apples Pounds Pairs Boots Orange Brothers And Sisters Equations

Book:Delphi Complete Novels of E. Nesbit

Source: Delphi Complete Novels of E. Nesbit

“Junior was eleven. The statement is significant. There are a few peevish people in the world who believe that all eleven-year-old boys ought to be hung. Others, less irritable, think that gently chloroforming them would seem more humane. A great many good-natured folks contend that incarceration for a couple of years would prove the best way to dispose of them.”

People Thinking World Way Years Believe Seems Boys Ought Couple Prove Folks Significant Statements Best Way Hung Humane Juniors Eleven Incarceration

Book:Mother Mason

Source: Mother Mason

“If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house, then in a field,...it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.”

Ifs Men Light Seems House Fields Ought Horrible Womb Fetus

Author:John Calvin

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