It is better to do one's own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.
Lao Tzu

What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of Lying.
Oscar Wilde

Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.
Oscar Wilde

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.
Thomas Paine

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.
George S. Patton

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.
Saint Augustine

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication.
James Dean

The vow of celibacy is a matter of keeping one's word to Christ and the Church. a duty and a proof of the priest's inner maturity; it is the expression of his personal dignity.
Pope John Paul II

I kiss the soil as if I placed a kiss on the hands of a mother, for the homeland is our earthly mother. I consider it my duty to be with my compatriots in this sublime and difficult moment.
Pope John Paul II

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
George Orwell

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.
George Orwell

Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.
John D. Rockefeller

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
John D. Rockefeller

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.
P. J. O'Rourke

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.
Blaise Pascal

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.
Douglas MacArthur

And like the old soldier in that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the sight to see that duty.
Douglas MacArthur

Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.
Douglas MacArthur

Love can do much, but duty more.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe