Quotes About Duty

Every man therefore is bound to do all the good he can to others, especially for the church and commonwealth.

That physician is no better than a murderer, that negligently delayeth till his patient be dead or past cure (389).

If every work of the day had thus its appointed time, we should be better skilled, both in redeeming time and performing duty (556).

remember, you cannot decline and neglect your duty, to your own hurt alone; many will be losers by it as well as you.

The fact was, the Senate's "advise and consent" was intended, from the start, to forestall the President from remaking the Court in his image. The Senate had, for most of its two hundred years, scrutinized the philosophy and politics of nominees—not just their competence, or honesty. And when a President picked a justice for reasons of ideology, it was the Senate's duty to examine that ideology.

Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.

There is nothing on earth so easy as to forget, if a person chooses to set about it. I'm sure I have as much forgot your poor, dear uncle, as if he had never existed; and I thought it my duty to do so.

One of the highest marks of citizenship is fighting for the common defense.

People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

No society can work unless its members feel responsibilities as well as rights.

I want you all to understand about moral courage. I know it is not easy. We are trained to fight men, not lies. We are trained to face death and wounds, not public scorn. But to win this fight against lies, we must find the moral courage to endure public scorn and even personal indignities without flinching or retaliating. That is the sacrifice the service of our nation demands of us now. I know we all have the moral courage to make it.

We [the military personnel here] serve the flag. The trade we all follow is the give and take of death. It is for that purpose that the American people maintain us. Any one of us who believes he has a job like any other, for which he draws a money wage, is a thief of the food he eats and a trespasser of the bunk in which he lies down to sleep.

A solider must leave someone behind,' she said. 'What men do best is walk away from women. Wars are handy for that.

It's a grand, luxurious act of self-deceit, an outright lie, that claim of Kant's: As far as nonhumans are concerned, we have no direct duties. All exists merely as means to an end. That end is man.

As my father, St. Francis, put it, when the heart is pure, "Love responds to Love alone" and has little to do with duty, obligation, requirement, or heroic anything. It is easy to surrender when you know that nothing but Love and Mercy is on the other side.

The motivation for all morality and religion is the imitation of God, who is love. When religion bases itself in fear, duty, honor, a need for law and order, a need for a superior self-image, or group cohesiveness, it is corrupt. It looks good and will have many defenders, but it is actually at the heart of the problem. The real God is no longer needed or even wanted, and such religion usually becomes the actual enemy of God. The crucifixion of Jesus speaks to this.

Grace believed that those who could see their duty clearly were required by God to do the heavy lifting for the morally blind. Where

But eating with genuine good appetite is no easy thing when you are seated at the opposite end of a long table from a man who makes it a point of moral significance to subsist on half a grapefruit, eaten in under a minute so that the bowl could be pushed emphatically away, another duty done.

Los soldados siempre deberían ser reacios a marchar a la guerra, barón. Son los aficionados quienes están ansiosos por hacerlo.

If a good man does nothing when confronted with a moral wrong, what is lost?

All three cops stood there, reaching deep within themselves, ensuring that whatever moral substance they safeguarded in their most secret corners remained untouched as they looked upon the outrage.

This is the Valdezinator, of course!' He puffed out his chest. 'It works by, um, translating your feelings into music as you manipulate the gears. It's really meant for me, a child of Hephaestus, to use, though. I don't know if you could –' 'I am the god of music!' Apollo cried. 'I can certainly master the Valdezinator. I must! It is my duty!

Terminus sniffed. "I guard borders. I don't kill giants. It's not in my job description.

Sadie, he said forlornly, when you become a parent, you may understand this. One of my hardest jobs as a father, one of my greatest duties, was to realize that my own dreams, my own goals and wishes, are secondary to my children's.