quotations about duty
The daily life is so wearisome; yet duty lies that way.
C. W. LEADBEATER
The Hidden Side of Christian Festivals
If there is to be no satisfaction in pleasure, none in wisdom, none in ambition, none in the golden mean, what then? Ah, where then? In duty. In doing right because it is right.
LYMAN ABBOTT
Problems of Life: Selections from the Writings of Rev. Lyman Abbott
DUTY, n. That which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
Make it a point to do something every day that you don't want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
MARK TWAIN
Following the Equator
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
The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties any more.
GEORGES BERNANOS
Last Essays
Two sides of lonely,
One is heart,
One is duty.
THE LONE BELLOW
"Two Sides of Lonely"
The superior man is the man who fulfils his duty.
EUGENE IONESCO
Rhinoceros
Though Duty's face is stern, her path is best:
They sweetly sleep who die upon her breast.
HENRY ABBEY
"The Roman Sentinel"
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
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
We survived. You and I. And those who survive have a duty. Our duty is to do our best to keep on living. Even if our lives are not perfect.
HARUKI MURAKAMI
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
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
What chastity is to woman, duty is to man, the willingly assumed burden of their kind.
JANICE MANNING & MARSHALL MASTERS
The Kolbrin Bible
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
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