Duty Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old duty quotes, duty sayings, and duty proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety. Tryon Edwards
A man's duty is to find out where the truth is, or if he cannot, at least to take the best possible human doctrine and the hardest to disprove, and to ride on this like a raft over the waters of life. Plato
Your duty is to treat everybody with love as a manifestation of the Lord. Swami Sivananda
Happiness is the natural flower of duty. Phillips Brooks
Who escapes a duty, avoids a gain. Theodore W. Parker
The reward of one duty done is the power to fulfill another. George Eliot
The reward of doing one duty is the power to do another. Rabbi Ben Azai
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. Thomas Jefferson
The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth. Cicero
No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks. James Allen
Every duty that is bidden to wait comes back with seven fresh duties at its back. Charles Kingsley
Duty is one and invariable; it requires no impossibilities, nor can it ever be disregarded with impunity. Henry David Thoreau
A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. Bertrand Russell
Duty is what one expects from others. Oscar Wilde
The duty of youth is to challenge corruption. Kurt Cobain
Duty is the sublimest word in the language; you can never do more than your duty; you shall never wish to do less. Robert E. Lee
A man who neglects his duty as a citizen is not entitled to his rights as a citizen. Tiorio
Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself. Andrew Carnegie
Every one regards his duty as a troublesome master from whom he would like to be free. Mazo de la Roche
People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights. Indira Gandhi
If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it. Robert Baden-Powell
Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty. John D. Rockefeller
It is our duty to be faithful, not with eye service as men pleasers. Jupiter Hammon
Do your duty as you see it, and damn the consequences. George S. Patton Jr.
It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. John Legend
Do your duty and leave the rest to the gods. Pierre Corneille
n action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty. Immanuel Kant
Every duty is a charge, but the charge of oneself is the root of all others. Mencius
Honor is no phantom. Duty doesn't melt away, no matter how much we might wish it to. Claudia J. Edwards
It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Duty is that mode of action on the part of the individual which constitutes the best possible application of his capacity to the general benefit. William Godwin
The duty of man is not a wilderness of turnpike gates, through which he is to pass by tickets from one to the other. It is plain and simple, and consists but of two points--his duty God, which every man must feel; and, with respect to his neighbor, to do as he would be done by. Thomas Paine
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. Robert Louis Stevenson
Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. Mark Twain
We all have the duty to do good. Pope Francis
With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve. Muhammad Ali Jinnah
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. George Bernard Shaw
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers. Henri Frédéric Amiel
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. Benjamin Franklin
The primary function of the state is to muster the necessary power needed to adequately perform its duty. Georges Bakaly
Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. Robert E. Lee
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. Robert E. Lee
A servant would view such orders from their masters as their duty and would do what their master told them to do. R. Luke Thompson
Duty - that which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire. Ambrose Bierce
It is seldom very hard to do one's duty when one knows what is is, but it is often exceedingly difficult to find this out. Steven Mason
The rule of joy and the law of duty seem to me all one. Oliver Wendell
It is easier to do one's duty to others than to one's self. If you do your duty to others, you are considered reliable. T.Szasz
The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. Alexis Carrel
Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having. Mohandas Gandhi
The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties anymore. Georges Bernanos
Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smile and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort. Humphrey Davy
We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it. Thomas Huxley
Duties are not performed for duty's sake, but because their neglect would make the man uncomfortable. Mark Twain
A man performs but one duty - the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to himself. Mark Twain
If each one sweeps before his own door, the whole street is clean. Yiddish saying
It is the duty of man to raise up man. One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity. Jose Marti
Stand up and be responsible for yourself. Be aware of your mind, and take responsibility for yourself. Suzuki Shosan
It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. Jean-Baptiste Moliere
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him, and to let him know that you trust him. Booker T. Washington
Nothing strengthens the judgement and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. Elizabeth Cady Standon
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty. John D. Rockefeller Jr.
To let oneself be bound by a duty from the moment you see it approaching is part of the integrity that alone justifies responsibility. Dag Hammarskjold
We need to restore the full meaning of that old word, duty. It is the other side of rights. Pearl S. Buck
Duty without enthusiasm becomes laborious; duty with enthusiasm becomes glorious. William Arthur Ward
The present means our duty at the moment. If we put all our strength into doing our duty, as we know it at this moment, we shall have made the highest human effort. Mahatma Gandhi
Sorrow springs from dreaming of the future and from lamenting the past. Hence one who concerns himself with the present and does his duty has neither birth nor death. Mahatma Gandhi
The duty to be alive is the same as the duty to become oneself, to develop into the individual one potentially is. Erich Fromm
Work of your own free will, not from duty. We have duty. The world is just a gymnasium in which we play: our life is an eternal holiday. Vivekananda
There are no snares more dangerous than those which lurk under the guise of duty or the name of relationship. Cicero
Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good. Mahatmi Gandhi
This is the sum of duty; Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. Mahabharata
Life is action, the use of one's powers. As to use them to their is our joy and duty, so it is the one end that justifies itself. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it. Thomas Huxley
The world belongs to the cheerful. The soul's highest duty is to be of good cheer. Emerson
Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though limits to our abilities do not exist. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The first duty of man is that of subduing fear. We must get rid of fear; we cannot act at all till then. Thomas Carlyle
Fear is never a good counsellor and victory over fear is the first spiritual duty of man. Nikolai Berdyaev