quotations about duty
The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country, than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.
ANDREW JACKSON
speech to troops, Jan. 8, 1815
The destiny of mankind is not decided by material computation. When great causes are on the move in the world ... we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time beyond space and time, which whether we like it or not, spells duty.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
speech in Rochester, 1941
Duty is the grandest of ideas, because it implies the idea of God, of the soul, of liberty, of responsibility, of immortality.
HENRI-DOMINIQUE LACORDAIRE
attributed, A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World
What chastity is to woman, duty is to man, the willingly assumed burden of their kind.
JANICE MANNING & MARSHALL MASTERS
The Kolbrin Bible
Though Duty's face is stern, her path is best:
They sweetly sleep who die upon her breast.
HENRY ABBEY
"The Roman Sentinel"
Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.
DOUG LARSON
attributed, Great Funny Quotes
We never fail when we
try to do our duty--
We always fail when we
neglect to do it.
LORD BADEN-POWELL
Rovering to Success
The want of reward is no warrant for us to dispense with our duty.
SAMUEL RICHARDSON
Clarissa
DUTY, n. That which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
When I'm not thank'd at all, I'm thank'd enough:
I've done my duty, and I've done no more.
HENRY FIELDING
Tom Thumb the Great
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
Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical.
JOHN FOWLES
The Magus
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
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech, Feb. 27, 1860
Duty is obligation, the bastard child of loyalty and the will to serve; when you think about it, just another roundabout way of saying love. No wonder it causes so much pointless damage.
K. J. PARKER
Evil for Evil
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
Until our duty becomes to us common as breathing, we are poor creatures.
GEORGE MACDONALD
The Wise Woman and Other Stories
The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties any more.
GEORGES BERNANOS
Last Essays
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
ELLEN STURGIS HOOPER
Life a Duty
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