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:
“Felix Randal the farrier, O he is dead then? My duty all is ended,
Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome,
Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some
Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“I am speaking now of the highest duty we owe our friends, the noblest, the most sacred—that of keeping their own nobleness, goodness, pure and incorrupt.... If we let our friend become cold and selfish and exacting without a remonstrance, we are no true lover, no true friend.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)