George Eliot Quotes

Men must be either the slaves of duty, or the slaves of force.

Duty is what goes most against the grain, because in doing that we do only what we are strictly obliged to, and are seldom much praised for it.

Duty does not consist in suffering everything, but in suffering everything for duty. Sometimes, indeed, it is our duty not to suffer.

Duty is but a pot. It holds whatever is put in it, from the greatest evil to the greatest good.

Stern daughter of the voice of God! O Duty! if that name thou love Who art a light to guide, a rod To check the erring and reprove.

For duty, duty must be done; The rule applies to everyone.

Duty is whatever opposes inclination.

We need to restore the full meaning of that old word, duty. It is the other side of rights.

A sense of duty imprisons you.

If a sense of duty tortures a man, it also enables him to achieve prodigies.

An action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty.

Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.

In duty the individual acquires his substantive freedom

Seek for duty, and happiness will follow as the shadow comes with the sunshine.

Neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done.

Yes, it is difficult for man to cross beyond the idea of duty.

Do what you should, not what you may.

Duty is seldom liked either by the doer or the object ... And why should it be? It is not often of advantage to either.

She had looked her duty courageously in the face and found it a friend - as duty ever is when we meet it frankly.

Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom.

There is no such thing as duty. If you know that a thing is right, you want to do it. If you don't want to do it - it isn't right. If it's right and you don't want to do it - you don't know what right is and you're not a man.

If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.

Without duty, life is soft and boneless.

The idea of duty--that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self--is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life.