Quotes About Obligation

On the traditional, heroic conception it is the normative statuses that matter, not the agent's attitudes. Parricide and incest ought not be. One should not act so as to incur the normative status of father killer and mother fucker.

The obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to and puts that power in the hands of others.

But the rule for reciprocation, which states that those who give first are entitled to receive in return,

There is an obligation to give, an obligation to receive, and an obligation to repay.

deberíamos estarlo. La regla de la reciprocidad rige muchas situaciones de naturaleza puramente interpersonal que no implican un intercambio de dinero ni comercial. Un ejemplo ilustrativo de esto es

No es de extrañar que el influyente antropólogo francés Marcel Mauss, cuando describe las presiones sociales que surgen en torno a los ofrecimientos de regalos, dice que hay una obligación de dar, una obligación de recibir y una obligación de corresponder.

Àqueles a quem muito se dá, muito se exige.

a regra da reciprocidade. A regra diz que devemos tentar retribuir, na mesma moeda, o que outra pessoa nos concedeu.

Little wonder, then, that the influential French anthropologist Marcel Mauss, in describing the social pressures surrounding the gift-giving process in human culture, can state, "There is an obligation to give, an obligation to receive, and an obligation to repay."12

we are trained from childhood to chafe, emotionally, under the saddle of obligation.

A person can trigger a feeling of indebtedness by doing us an uninvited favor (Paese & Gilin, 2000). Recall that the rule states only that we should provide to others the kind of actions they have provided us; it does not require us to have asked for what we have received in order to feel obligated to repay.

The noted archaeologist Richard Leakey ascribes the essence of what makes us human to the reciprocity system: "We are human because our ancestors learned to share their food and their skills in an honored network of obligation,"9

An Apple executive told The New York Times, "We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.

Each morning I gaze at the eastern horizon, and if the sun keeps its promise, I keep mine.

There is in all animals a sense of duty that man condescends to call instinct.

Conspicuously absent from the Ten Commandments is any obligation of parent to child. We must suppose that God felt it unnecessary to command by law what He had ensured by love.

Sometimes, to do the right thing, we must keep a promise we never made.

My dad was rubbish at all other aspects of his financial life, but he's pretty good at paying the rent.

Men of great abilities are slow to act. for it is easier to avoid occasions for committing yourself than to come well out of a commitment. Such occasions test your judgment; it is safer to avoid them than to emerge victorious from them. One obligation leads to a greater one, and you come very near to the brink of disaster. BALTASAR GRACIÁN, 1601-1658

Not only is a man not obliged to be grateful, gratitude is often a terrible burden that he gladly discards.

A man suddenly spared the guillotine is a grateful man indeed, and will go to the ends of the earth for the man who has pardoned him.

What is offered for free is dangerous--it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit.

What starts as gratitude quickly becomes dependency and ends as entitlement

But if you really believe that your neighbors must have laws for their own good, why shouldn't you pay for it?