
“I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.”
“I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.”
“I don’t say we all ought to misbehave. But we ought to look as if we could”
Attributed to Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Florence, in Apothegms by Francis Bacon, (1624) No. 206
“We ought not to desire the impossible.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
As quoted in The New York Times (24 June 1941); also in TIME magazine (2 July 1951) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,815031,00.html)
Context: If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.
No. 206
Apophthegms (1624)
Speaking about Don't ask, don't tell, before students at Iowa State University — [The Washington Post, The Washington Post Company, February 3, 2010, Michael D., Shear, McCain appears to shift on 'don't ask, don't tell', http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020202588.html, 2010-10-28]
2000s, 2006
“We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated.”
Volume II, Chapter III, "Spread of Evolution - 1861-1862,") p. 175 https://books.google.com/books?id=BSdBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA175&dq=We+are+a+wretched+family+%26+ought+to+be+exterminated+++++darwin++scarlet+fever&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBGoVChMI0OmV8rHGxwIVA56ACh2YEAYF#v=onepage&q=We%20are%20a%20wretched%20family%20%26%20ought%20to%20be%20exterminated%20%20%20%20%20darwin%20%20scarlet%20fever&f=false. Letter to Asa Gray (1810-1888), (21 August 1862)
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
Context: We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated. We slept here to rest our poor boy on his journey to Bournemouth, and my poor dear wife sickened with scarlet fever, and has had it pretty sharply, but is recovering well. There is no end of trouble in this weary world. (Owing to the illness from scarlet fever of one of his boys, he [Darwin] took a house at Bournemouth in the autumn. He wrote to Dr. Gray from Southampton).