61 Quotes On Duty And Responsibility

In a world constantly evolving with new challenges and opportunities, the timeless concepts of duty and responsibility remain steadfast anchors. These principles shape our actions, guide our decisions, and define our character. Whether in personal relationships, professional environments, or societal roles, fulfilling one's duties and responsibilities is essential for fostering trust, respect, and progress. In this curated collection, we explore 61 of the most inspiring and thought-provoking quotes on duty and responsibility. Through the wisdom of visionaries, leaders, and thinkers, these quotes offer insights into the profound impact of living with purpose and a sense of obligation. Join us on this journey of reflection and motivation, as we delve into the words that have inspired countless individuals to uphold their commitments and make a meaningful difference in the world.

1. “If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.” - Albert Einstein

2. “A poet's work . . . to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.” - Salman Rushdie

3. “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill

4. “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

5. “The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.” - Theodore Roosevelt

6. “On my honor, I will do my bestTo do my duty To God and my country” - Boy Scouts of America

7. “Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.” - George Washington

8. “Thus, you see, he arrived at the same end, via supposed duty, that he was previously pledged to via interest. I fancy a good number of us, when any line of action will promote our own interest, can make ourselves believe that reasons exist which compel us to it as a duty.” - Elizabeth Gaskell

9. “There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. - Mr. Knightley” - Jane Austen

10. “The way I see it, when you put the uniform on, in effect you sign a contract. And you don't back out of a contract merely because you've changed your mind. You can still speak up for your principles, you can still argue against the ones you're being made to fight for, but in the end you do the job.” - Pat Barker

11. “You know I have duties──we both have duties──before which feeling must be sacrificed.” - George Eliot

12. “You know, that man has a spirit, that each man and woman is unique, that we have duty to promote our unalienable rights and to protect them, that we have a duty to our families and ourselves, to take care of ourselves, to contribute to charity, that we have a duty to support a just and righteous law that is stable and predictable.” - Mark R. Levin

13. “His face set in grim determination, Richard slogged ahead, his fingers reaching up to touch the tooth under his shirt. Loneliness, deeper than he had never known, sagged his shoulders. All his friends were lost to him. He knew now that his life was not his own. It belonged to his duty, to his task. He was the Seeker. Nothing more. Nothing less. Not his own man, but a pawn to be used by others. A tool, same as his sword, to help others, that they might have the life he had only glimpsed for a twinkling.He was no different from the dark things in the boundary. A bringer of death.” - Terry Goodkind

14. “Ain't all buttons and charts, little albatross. Know what the first rule of flying is? Well I s'pose you do, since you already know what I'm 'bout to say.I do. But I like to hear you say it.Love. Can know all the math in the 'verse but take a boat in the air that you don't love? She'll shake you off just as sure as a turn in the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home.” - Joss Whedon

15. “A person less fortunate than yourself deserves the best you can give. Because of duty, and honor, and service. You understand those words? You should do your job right, and you should do it well, simply because you can, without looking for notice or reward.” - Lee Child

16. “If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment.” - George Eliot

17. “An action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty.” - Immanuel Kant

18. “We are meant to be.” He pressed his lips to mine again; against myself, against my worry, I once again succumbed to the power of his kiss. “I know that now. Our love is stronger than magic, stronger than the laws of all Feyland. It will survive this...whatever the future brings.” - Prince Kian, Silver Frost.” - Kailin Gow

19. “His outflung hands traced over the threads of his rug, passed loop by loop through some patient woman's hands. Or maybe she hadn't been patient. Maybe she'd been tired, or irritated, or distracted, or hungry, or angry. Maybe she had been dying. But her hands had kept moving, all the same.” - Lois McMaster Bujold

20. “Rise above the deceptions and temptations of the mind. This is your duty. You are born for this only; all other duties are self-created and self-imposed owing to ignorance.” - Sivananda

21. “Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.” - G.K. Chesterton

22. “Full moon is falling through the sky.Cranes fly through clouds.Wolves howl. I cannot find restBecause I am powerlessTo amend a broken world.Sima Zian added, "I love the man who wrote that, I told you before, but there is so much burden in Chan Du. Duty, assuming all tasks, can betray arrogance. The idea we can know what must be done, and do it properly. We cannot know the future, my friend. It claims so much to imagine we can. And the world is not broken any more than it always, always is.” - Guy Gavriel Kay

23. “Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.” - Abraham Lincoln

24. “An enlightened man had but one duty - to seek the way to himself, to reach inner certainty, to grope his way forward, no matter where it led.” - Hermann Hesse

25. “So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man,When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,' The youth whispers, 'I can.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. “Duty is what one expects from others.” - Oscar Wilde

27. “One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.” - Helen Keller

28. “It's a father's duty to give his sons a fine chance.” - George Eliot

29. “Each position has its corresponding duties.” - George Eliot

30. “A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.” - Winston S. Churchill

31. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright” - Blaise Pascal

32. “She had a fierce pleasure in the idea of telling Margaret unwelcome truths, in the shape of performance of duty.” - Elizabeth Gaskell

33. “And whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty).And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine.” - Anonymous

34. “Honor is no phantom. Duty doesn't melt away, no matter how much we might wish it to.” - Claudia J. Edwards

35. “These thoughts are depressing I know. They are depressing, I wish I was more cheerful, it is more pleasant,Also it is a duty, we should smile as well as submitting To the purpose of One Above who is experimentingWith various mixtures of human character which goes best, All is interesting for him it is exciting, but not for us. There I go again. Smile, smile, and get some work to doThen you will be practically unconscious without positively having to go.” - Stevie Smith

36. “To exact revenge for yourself or your friends is not only a right, it's an absolute duty.” - Stieg Larsson

37. “Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.” - Swami Vivekananda

38. “The most difficult challenge an honest man will ever face is having to choose between duty and love.One creates a man of honorable character―a life worth dying for.The other creates a vulnerable soul that madly yearns for either death or immortality.” - Richelle Goodrich

39. “Takamasa Saegusa: 'Seigen, a mere member of the Toudouza, had the effrontery to sully the sacred dueling ground. For that reason, our lord had already decided to subject him to tu-uchi before long. Cut off his head immediately, and stick it on a pike!'Gennosuke could hardly believe his ears. Such an insult to Irako Seigen was unwarranted. It was pride. For Gennosuke, Irako Seigen was pride itself.Takamasa Saegusa: 'Fujiki Gennosuke! It is the way of the samurai to take the head of the defeated enemy on the battleground. Do not hesitate! If you are a samurai, you must carry out the duty of a samurai!'Samurai...Saegusa, Lord of Izu, continued shouting, but Gennosuke did not attend. That word 'samurai' alone reverberated through his body.If one aims at the juncture between the base of the skull and the spine, decapitation is not that difficult, but Gennosuke could muster no more strength than a baby. He grew pale and trembled with the strain. He could only hack with his sword as if he were sawing wood. He felt nauseated, as if his own cells one after another were being annihilated. But this...Lord Tokugawa Tadanaga: 'I approve.'Takamasa Saegusa: 'Fujiki Gennosuke, for this splendid action you have received words of thanks from our lord. As a sign of his exceptional approval, you shall be given employment at Sunpu Castle. This great debt will by no means be forgotten. From this day forward you must offer your life to our lord!'Prostrating himself, Gennosuke vomited.” - Takayuki Yamaguchi

40. “This is a perfectly good picture. And if I didn't know you, I would be impressed and charmed. But I do know you."He thought some more, wondering whether he dared say precisely what he felt, for he knew he could never explain exactly why the idea came to him. "It's the painting of a dutiful daughter," he said eventually, looking at her cautiously to see her reaction. "You want to please. You are always aware of what the person looking at this picture will think of it. Because of that you've missed something important. Does that make sense?"She thought, then nodded. "All right," she said grudgingly and with just a touch of despair in her voice. "You win."Julien grunted. "Have another go, then. I shall come back and come back until you figure it out.""And you'll know?""You'll know. I will merely get the benefit of it.” - Iain Pears

41. “Those who believe that liberal democracy and the free market can be defended by the force of law and regulation alone, without an internalised sense of duty and morality, are tragically mistaken.” - Jonathan Sacks

42. “But it is a writer's duty to write and speak and record the truth, always the truth, no matter whom may be offended.” - Edward Abbey

43. “We’re so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us.” - Harper Lee

44. “And we must still try or we would be leaving our friends to fight without us. I think this is what you have meant by duty, all along; I do understand, at least this much of it.” - Naomi Novik

45. “He had sprung from a rigid Puritan stock, and had been brought up to think much more intently of the duties of this life than of its privileges and pleasures.” - Henry James

46. “...so Leola thought that a modest romance with a hero in embryo could do no harm - might even be a patriotic duty.” - Robertson Davies

47. “Honor is honesty to what is, not blind duty to what you wish to be.” - Terry Goodkind

48. “What honest boy would pride himself on not picking pockets ? A thief who was trying to reform would. To be conceited of doing one's duty is then a sign of how little one does it, and how little one sees what a contemptible thing it is not to do it. Could any but a low creature be conceited of not being contemptible? Until our duty becomes to us common as breathing, we are poor creatures.” - George MacDonald

49. “there are some some times in life where you have to let your feelings go and do what must be done” - Evan Meekins

50. “Love grows and wanes, but honor, duty, and commitment, those things are constant and stable. They define who you are.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

51. “Most of us don't mind doing what we ought to do when it doesn't interfere with what we want to do, but it takes discipline and maturity to do what we ought to do whether we want to or not.” - Joseph B. Wirthlin

52. “We live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns.” - Aaron Sorkin

53. “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.” - Winston Churchill

54. “Not once or twice in our fair island-story,The path of duty was the way to glory.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson

55. “No man of honor avoided what needed to be done, simply because it might not proceed in his favor.” - Claire Delacroix

56. “Work done is of more consequence for the future than the foresight of an angel.” - George MacDonald

57. “Major, I do not know why God does the things He does, but I believe you have the same duty to God as you have always had: to follow the right path, to live your life with a clear conscience.” - Jeff Shaara

58. “Thomas looked around and tried not to let his duty turn him bitter. These were good men, and he would not leave them behind. He had chosen this, an unselfish life.” - Jessica Fortunato

59. “Unity! Duty! And destiny!” - Greg Farshtey

60. “No duty is ignoble. What can be ignoble is the sight of people trying not to be ignoble.” - Idries Shah

61. “The world might stop in ten minutes; meanwhile, we are to go on doing our duty. The great thing is to be found at one's post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years.” - C.S. Lewis