Word: oughtness
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...needed. In the absence of authority, when ordinary order goes askew, someone who plays Assassin may be good to have around. A little subtlety, a little of the raptor works wonders when no one has time to call 911, when the cell phone is out of service. More women ought to play now, lest they pay later. More men ought to play, lest they prove useless when push becomes shove, when the night needs repossessing. Assassin sheds only a glimmery moral light, but one that once fascinated Melville and other writers preoccupied with delineating character under stress, with decrying...
...Mickey said, "I think I ought to sell it for two thousand dollars...
...class we spend endless hours experimenting, developing models of analysis and working out complex equations, all in an effort to conquer the mysterious. In striving to catalog Shakespeare's sonnets, however, we soon forget to be stirred by them. I do not mean to suggest that we ought to cease our attempts at mastering the unknown, but I worry that our constant efforts to analyze and footnote may leave us numb to the beautiful and incapable of being moved by the magnificent. Just as an average teenager's desire to fit in leads him or her to squelch a sense...
Instead of allowing our desire for mastery over the unknown encroach upon our sense of wonder, we ought to cultivate that sense of wonder, or at least refuse to unlearn it. There is a middle ground between rational analysis and naive innocence, and a robust sense of wonder ought to occupy that middle ground. If we forbid ourselves from feeling awe and excitement, we may do long-term damage and risk setting ourselves on a collision course with midlife crises...
...rediscover the sense of wonder in our souls, we need to first fully embrace an ethos of exploration. Resting on one's laurels contributes to the malaise we may feel at times, so instead we ought to be eager for novelty and uncertainty in our investigation of poetry, philosophy, literature, art, religion and even our own relationships. One cannot know when a sense of wonder and inspiration will engulf one while enjoying these pursuits, but the feeling will be of unmistakable ecstasy when it finally strikes...