Duty
Duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; Old French: deu, did, past participle of devoir; Latin: debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment or obligation to someone or something. The moral commitment should result in action; it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone recognizes a duty, that person theoretically commits themself to its fulfillment without considering their own self-interest. This is not to suggest that living a life of duty entirely precludes a life of leisure; however, its fulfilment generally involves some sacrifice of immediate self-interest. Typically, "the demands of justice, honor, and reputation are deeply bound up" with duty.
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Famous quotes containing the word duty:
“Any officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“[Women’s] duty is nothing else than the fulfilment [sic] of the whole moral law, the attainment of every human virtue.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)
“To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature.”
—Ernst Fischer (1899–1972)