Obligation
An obligation is a course of action that someone is required to take, whether legal or moral. There are also obligations in other normative contexts, such as obligations of etiquette, social obligations, and possibly in terms of politics, where obligations are requirements which must be fulfilled. These are generally legal obligations, which can incur a penalty for unfulfilment, although certain people are obliged to carry out certain actions for other reasons as well, whether as a tradition or for social reasons. Obligations vary from person to person: for example, a person holding a political office will generally have far more obligations than an average adult citizen, who themselves will have more obligations than a child. Obligations are generally granted in return for an increase in an individual's rights or power. For example, obligations for Health and Safety in a workplace from employer to employee maybe to ensure the Fire exit isn't blocked or ensure that the plugs are put in firmly.
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Famous quotes containing the word obligation:
“So what if people say terrible things? Whatever they call me, I say, “Yes, and my name is Mary.” I refuse to be afraid. And I do this out of an obligation not to the community but to myself. Nobody should have a say in who I am.”
—Mary Hansen (b. c. 1975)
“Do not tell me ... of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Such reproductions may not interest the reader; but after all, this is my autobiography, not his; he is under no obligation to read further in it; he was under none to begin.... A modest or inhibited autobiography is written without entertainment to the writer and read with distrust by the reader.”
—Neville Cardus (1889–1975)