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Duty Quotes

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Duty Quotes

“Absolute Evil is not the kingdom of hell. The inhabitants of hell are ourselves, i.e., those who pay our painful, embarrassing, humanistic duties to society and who are compromised by our intellectually dubious commitment to virtue, which can be defined by the perpetual smear-word of French polemic: the bourgeois. (Bourgeois equals humanist.) This word has long been anathema in France where categories are part of the ruling notion of logique. The word cannot be readily matched in England or America.”

“Leisure, the highest happiness upon earth, is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction, except in solitude. Indolence and indifference do not always afford leisure; for true leisure is frequently found in that interval of relaxation which divides a painful duty from an agreeable recreation; a toilsome business from the more agreeable occupations of literature and philosophy.”

“It is our daily duty to consider that in all circumstances of life, pleasurable, painful, or otherwise, the conduct of others, especially of those in the same house; and that, as life is made up, for the most part, not of great occasions, but of small everyday moments, it is the giving to those moments their greatest amount of peace, pleasantness, and security, that contributes most to the sum of human good. Be peaceable. Be cheerful. Be true.”

Giving Humans Made Moments Life Is House Security Duty Amount Circumstances Everyday Painful Being True Occasions Cheerful Everyday Moments

Author:Leigh Hunt

“If the youth is content to abandon his previous associates and to throw in his lot whole-heartedly with the rulers, he may, after suitable tests, be promoted, but if he shows any regrettable solidarity with his previous associates, the rulers will reluctantly conclude that there is nothing to be done with him except to send him to the lethal chamber before his ill-disciplined intelligence has had time to spread revolt. This will be a painful duty to the rulers, but I think they will not shrink from performing it.”

Ifs Thinking May Done Whole Shows Youth Duty Tests Ill Painful Spread Performing Abandon Rulers Solidarity Associates Shrinks Chamber Revolt Suitable

Author:Bertrand Russell

“When you're on the yard, prisoner politics dictate that you only socialize with your own race. If you fraternize with other races, you can get taught a painful lesson. And there are inmates with a level of consciousness who feel it's their duty to enforce this segregation.”

Ifs Feels Levels Race Consciousness Taught Duty Lessons Painful Prisoner Yards Segregation Inmates

Author:James Fox

“Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be.”

Way Giving May War Pain Sea Duty Painful Consideration Officers Great Business Horatio Endless Sea

Author:Horatio Nelson

“Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.”

Ifs Writing Fiction Duty Painful

Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays

Source: The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays

“And that's why, gentleman, if your little girl doesn't come up to scratch, it will be our painful duty to cut all your throats. Merely in a way of business, as you might say, and no offense, I hope.”

Ifs Way Littles Might Girl Cutting Duty Come Up Painful Gentleman Throat Offense Scratches

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Her visits to her former hometown were infrequent and often painful. Pilgrimages fueled by the tepid oxygen of family duty, unease, guilt. The more Esther loved her parents, the more helpless she felt, as they aged, to protect them from harm. A moral coward, she kept her distance.”

Felt Parent Moral Duty Protect Distance Guilt Painful Harm Former Coward Helpless Oxygen Hometown Pilgrimage Esther

Author:Joyce Carol Oates