quotations about duty
The conception of duty, speaking historically, has been a means used by the holders of power to induce others to live for the interests of their masters rather than for their own. Of course the holders of power conceal this fact from themselves by managing to believe that their interests are identical with the larger interests of humanity.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
"In Praise of Idleness"
Stern daughter of the voice of God!
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring and reprove.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Ode to Duty
I thought the remnant of mine age
Should have been cherish'd by her child-like duty.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The brave man wants no charms to encourage him to his duty, and the good man scorns all warnings that would deter him from fulfilling it.
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings
Obedience and resignation are our personal offerings upon the altar of duty.
HOSEA BALLOU
Edge-Tools of Speech
If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
I give nothing as duties,
What others give as duties I give as living impulses
WALT WHITMAN
Leaves of Grass
Duty doesn't need to call; it only needs to whisper. And if you heed the call, no matter what happens, you have no need for regret.
DEAN KOONTZ
Odd Apocalypse
Every duty is great; great, because it tries our principle; great, because for the time being it tries our loyalty to conscience, and our energy and will.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
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
No duty is imposed on the rich.
EUGENE EDINE POTTIER
The Internationale
Death is lighter than a feather, but Duty is heavier than a mountain.
ROBERT JORDAN
To the Blight
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"
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
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 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
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
Families are nothing other than the idolatry of duty.
ANN OAKLEY
Taking It Like a Woman
You have your duty and your heart. To chose one means the other must suffer.
TOMI ADEYEMI
Children of Blood and Bone