quotations about duty
The idea of duty, that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self, is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life. No man can begin to mould himself on a faith or an idea without rising to a higher order of experience: a principle of subordination, of self-mastery, has been introduced into his nature; he is no longer a mere bundle of impressions, desires, and impulses.
GEORGE ELIOT
Janet's Repentance
Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical.
JOHN FOWLES
The Magus
Not once or twice in our fair island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory.
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
"Ode on the Death of Wellington"
Three things prompt men to a regular discharge of their duty in time of action: natural bravery, hope of reward, and fear of punishment.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to the President of Congress, Feb. 9, 1776
Until our duty becomes to us common as breathing, we are poor creatures.
GEORGE MACDONALD
The Wise Woman and Other Stories
Two sides of lonely,
One is heart,
One is duty.
THE LONE BELLOW
"Two Sides of Lonely"
A man who refuses a duty ... is not punished ... but forsaken. And he will never know love or honor or happiness again.
S. M. STIRLING
The Sunrise Lands
The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties any more.
GEORGES BERNANOS
Last Essays
A man who does his duty because it is the custom, like the man who abstains because of other men's opinions and practices, simply reflects what exists around him--it is not his own duteous act or virtue; it lies on the surface, it has not penetrated his soul.
JAMES PLATT
Platt's Essays
Besides the five senses, there is a sixth sense, of equal importance--the sense of duty.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
It is difficult to preach, this morality of mediocrity! It may never admit what it is and what it wants! It must speak about restraint and worth and duty and love of one's neighbor.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Beyond Good and Evil
I do perceive here a divided duty.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Othello
The superior man is the man who fulfils his duty.
EUGENE IONESCO
Rhinoceros
When the destinies of the world are at stake, there comes a point at which private esteem and admiration must give way to the sense of public duty.
WILLIAM ARCHER
Shirking the Issue: A Letter to Dr. George Brandes
Though Duty's face is stern, her path is best:
They sweetly sleep who die upon her breast.
HENRY ABBEY
"The Roman Sentinel"
Honor is no phantom. Duty doesn't melt away, no matter how much we might wish it to.
CLAUDIA J. EDWARDS
Taming the Forest King
What chastity is to woman, duty is to man, the willingly assumed burden of their kind.
JANICE MANNING & MARSHALL MASTERS
The Kolbrin Bible
The journey of life is plain and straight enough if people were trained to make principle their watchword and duty their rule.
JAMES PLATT
Platt's Essays
That famous ring that pricked its owner when he forgot duty and followed desire--I wonder if it pricked very hard when he set out on the chase, or whether it pricked but lightly then, and only pierced to the quick when the chase had long been ended, and hope folding her wings, looked backward and became regret?
GEORGE ELIOT
Silas Marner
It is wrong to tantalize you so while you are braving all things in trying to fulfil duty. Duty is black and brown--home is bright and shining, and the spirit and the bride say come, and let him that wandereth come, for behold all things are ready.
EMILY DICKINSON
letter to William Austin Dickinson, October 1851