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.
Read more about Duty.
Famous quotes containing the word duty:
“To-day there is hardly a woman of intelligence in all America ... who is not definitely and actively concerned in some social interest, who does not recognize some duty besides those incident to her own blood relationship.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)
“[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)
“If one mistreats citizens of foreign countries, one infringes upon one’s duty toward one’s own subjects; for thus one exposes them to the law of retribution.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)