Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Duty
Thanks to the gods! my boy has done his duty.
Addison—Cato. Act IV. Sc. 4.
In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.
St. Augustine.
He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.
Henry Ward Beecher—Life Thoughts.
To do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me.
Book of Common Prayer. Catechism.
Maintain your post: That’s all the fame you need;
For ’tis impossible you should proceed.
Dryden—To Mr. Congreve, on his Comedy “The Double Dealer.”
Not aw’d to duty by superior sway.
Dryden—Eleonora. L. 178.
And rank for her meant duty, various,
Yet equal in its worth, done worthily.
Command was service; humblest service done
By willing and discerning souls was glory.
George Eliot—Agatha.
The reward of one duty is the power to fulfil another.
George Eliot—Daniel Deronda. Bk. VI. Ch. XLVI.
So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man.
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can.
Emerson—Voluntaries. St. 3. L. 13.
When I’m not thank’d at all, I’m thank’d enough:
I’ve done my duty, and I’ve done no more.
Fielding—Tom Thumb. Act I. Sc. 3.
In common things the law of sacrifice takes the form of positive duty.
Froude—Short Studies on Great Subjects. Sea Studies.
Was aber ist deine Pflicht? Die Forderung des Tages.
But what is your duty? What the day demands.
Goethe—Sprüche in Prosa. III. 151.
Hath the spirit of all beauty
Kissed you in the path of duty?
Anna Katharine Green—On the Threshold.
Then on! then on! where duty leads,
My course be onward still.
Bishop Heber—Journal.
I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty:—
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Ellen Sturgis Hooper—Duty.
Take up the White Man’s burden.
Kipling—The White Man’s Burden. To the United States. Feb. 4, 1899. In McClure’s Magazine. Feb., 1899.
Thet tells the story! Thet’s wut we shall git
By tryin’ squirtguns on the burnin’ Pit;
For the day never comes when it’ll du
To kick on dooty like a worn-out shoe.
Lowell—The Biglow Papers. No. 11.
Straight is the line of duty;
Curved is the line of beauty;
Follow the straight line, thou shalt see
The curved line ever follow thee.
William MacCall—Duty.
Every mission constitutes a pledge of duty. Every man is bound to consecrate his every faculty to its fulfilment. He will derive his rule of action from the profound conviction of that duty.
Mazzini—Life and Writings. Young Europe. General Principles.
The things which must be, must be for the best,
God helps us do our duty and not shrink,
And trust His mercy humbly for the rest.
Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton)—Imperfection.
Left that command
Sole daughter of his voice.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. IX. L. 652.
Knowledge is the hill which few may wish to climb;
Duty is the path that all may tread.
Lewis Morris—Epic of Hades. Quoted by John Bright at Unveiling of Cobden Statue.
Thy sum of duty let two words contain,
(O may they graven in thy heart remain!)
Be humble and be just.
Prior—Solomon on the Vanity of the World. Bk. III.
And I read the moral—A brave endeavour
To do thy duty, whate’er its worth,
Is better than life with love forever,
And love is the sweetest thing on earth.
James J. Roche—Sir Hugo’s Choice.
Alas! when duty grows thy law, enjoyment fades away.
Schiller—The Playing Infant.
I do perceive here a divided duty.
Othello. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 181.
I thought the remnant of mine age
Should have been cherish’d by her child-like duty.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 74.
Not once or twice in our rough island story,
The path of duty was the way to glory.
Tennyson—Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. St. 8.
Simple duty hath no place for fear.
Whittier—Tent on the Beach. Abraham Davenport. Last Line.
The primal duties shine aloft, like stars:
The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless
Are scattered at the feet of Man, like flowers.
Wordsworth—The Excursion. Bk. IX.
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;
And in the light of truth thy
Bondman let me live!
Wordsworth—Ode to Duty.
Stern Daughter of the Voice of God.
Wordsworth—Ode to Duty.
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove.
Wordsworth—Ode to Duty.