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Duty Quotes

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Duty Quotes

“The paternal and filial duties discipline the heart, and prepare it for the love of all mankind. The intensity of private attachment encourages, not prevents, universal benevolence.”

Heart Mankind Duty Discipline Universal Attachment Intensity Benevolence Filial Filial Duty

Book:The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Volume 1: Lectures, 1795: On Politics and Religion

Source: The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Volume 1: Lectures, 1795: On Politics and Religion

“Both love of mankind, and respect for their rights are duties; the former however is only a conditional, the latter an unconditional, purely imperative duty, which he must be perfectly certain not to have transgressed who would give himself up to the secret emotions arising from benevolence.”

Giving Certain Secret Emotion Rights Mankind Duty Former Latter Unconditional Imperatives Benevolence Conditional

Author:Immanuel Kant

“The difference of the degrees in which the individuals of a great community enjoy the good things of life has been a theme of declaration and discontent in all ages; and it is doubtless our paramount duty, in every state of society, to alleviate the pressure of the purely evil part of this distribution, as much as possible, and, by all the means we can devise, secure the lower links in the chain of society from dragging in dishonor and wretchedness.”

“Republics demanded virtue. Monarchies could rely on coercion and "dazzling splendor" to suppress self-interest or factions; republics relied on the goodness of the people to put aside private interest for public good. The imperatives of virtue attached all sorts of desiderata to the republican citizen: simplicity, frugality, sobriety, simple manners, Christian benevolence, duty to the polity. Republics called on other virtues--spiritedness, courage--to protect the polity from external threats. Tyrants kept standing armies; republics relied on free yeomen, defending their own land.”

“Who can describe the injustice and the cruelties that in the course of centuries the peoples of color of the world have suffered at the hands of Europeans?... We and our civilization are burdened, really, with a great debt. We are not free to confer benefits on these men, or not, as we please; it is our duty. Anything we give them is not benevolence but atonement.”

Men World Giving Hands Courses Century Color Duty Please Civilization Benefits Injustice Debt Cruelty Benevolence Atonement

Author:Albert Schweitzer

“The administration of government lies in getting proper men. Such men are to be got by means of the ruler's own character. That character is to be cultivated by his treading in the ways of duty. And the treading those ways of duty is to be cultivated by the cherishing of benevolence.”

Men Way Mean Character Government Lying Duty Administration Cherish Rulers Benevolence Treading Government Lies

Book:Confucian Analects, The Great Learning & The Doctrine of the Mean

Source: Confucian Analects, The Great Learning & The Doctrine of the Mean