„I don't say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could.“

„If we believe that there are some irreducibly normative truths, we might be believing what we ought to believe. If there are such truths, one of these truths would be that we ought to believe that there are such truths. If instead we believe that there are no such truths, we could not be believing what we ought to believe. If there were no such truths, there would be nothing that we ought to believe.“

—  Derek Parfit, książka Reasons and Persons

Źródło: Reasons and Persons (1984), p. 619

„The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it.“

—  John McCain politician from the United States 1936 - 2018

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

„Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.“

—  William Shakespeare, Król Lear

Wariant: We know what we are, but not what we may be.
Źródło: King Lear

„We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.“

—  Cosimo de' Medici First ruler of the Medici political dynasty 1389 - 1464

Attributed to Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Florence, in Apothegms by Francis Bacon, (1624) No. 206

„Cosmus, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends, that "We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."“

—  Francis Bacon English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author 1561 - 1626

No. 206
Apophthegms (1624)

„Just as we say “listening and hearing,” “looking and seeing,” so we ought to have two expressions to distinguish active reading from passive.“

—  Georges Duhamel French writer 1884 - 1966

Źródło: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. 47

„… we ought to.“

—  George Berkeley Anglo-Irish philosopher 1685 - 1753

„We do not what we ought,
What we ought not, we do,
And lean upon the thought
That chance will bring us through.“

—  Matthew Arnold, książka Empedocles on Etna

Act I, sc. ii
Empedocles on Etna (1852)

„Conservatism, we are told, is out-of-date. This charge is preposterous and we ought to boldly say so.“

—  Barry Goldwater, książka The Conscience of a Conservative

The Conscience of a Conservative (1960)
Kontekst: 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.

„We ought not to desire the impossible.“

—  Leonardo Da Vinci Italian Renaissance polymath 1452 - 1519

XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

„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“

—  Harry Truman American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953) 1884 - 1972

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)
Kontekst: 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.

„I think the testimony obviously ought to be sworn testimony. And we ought to go all the way into this and take as much time as we can to reassure the American people that this sort of thing’s not going to happen again in the future.“

—  Mitch McConnell US Senator from Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader 1942

On the need for testimonies by Clinton White House staffers Fox News Sunday http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/01/fox-catches-mcconnell/ (June 16, 1996).
1997

„I don't believe that the policies on which we fought the [1983] election ought to be ejected like some sort of spent cartridge.“

—  Neil Kinnock British politician 1942

Tribune, 15 June, 1983.

„I think we ought to have more oil. We ought to develop more sources of oil so that we can increase our supply. But the last thing I want to do is suck it all dry as quickly as we can. I want to use less of it.“

—  Mitt Romney American businessman and politician 1947

Interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews, December 2005.
2003–2007 Governor of Massachusetts

„[W]hen someone speaks we ought to get three things out of the message. First and least important (but still very important), we ought to get what is said. Second, and more important, we ought to have a spiritual experience. Third, and most important, we should keep the commitments we make to ourselves“

—  Henry D. Moyle Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles 1889 - 1963

Paraphrased by w:Vaughn J. Featherstone in Food Storage http://lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=dfa0fd758096b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1|
Paraphrased

„We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated.“

—  Charles Darwin, książka The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin

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)
Kontekst: 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).

„I think we ought to welcome people from different cultures to America. The great thing about America is we ought to be confident in knowing that everybody becomes an American. And we share the same value system.“

—  George W. Bush 43rd President of the United States 1946

2010s, 2011
Kontekst: And you realize that we share the same values. Faith, family, you know, hard work, commitment to service and I think we ought to welcome people from different cultures to America. The great thing about America is we ought to be confident in knowing that everybody becomes an American. And we share the same value system. In other words, there's a great capacity for our society to assimilate people.

„The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask.“

—  John Keble English churchman and poet, a leader of the Oxford Movement 1792 - 1866

Morning reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

„Many of us are impersonations of what we know we ought to be.“

—  Henry S. Haskins 1875 - 1957

Źródło: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 82