Duty

Works to read

• On Duties (De Officiis) by Marcus Tullius Cicero, 44 BC
• Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant, 1785 · Great Books
• The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics by Immanuel Kant, 1797 · Great Books
• The Science of Right by Immanuel Kant, 1797 · Great Books
• Meno by Plato, c. 385 BCE · Great Books
• Protagoras by Plato, c. 390-380 BC · Great Books
• The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1513 (published 1532) · Great Books
• On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (De Motu Cordis) by William Harvey, 1628 · Great Books
• Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant, 1788 · Great Books
• Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, c. 700 BC
• The History of Rome, Books I-V by Livy (Titus Livius), c. 27-9 BC
• The Westminster Shorter Catechism by Westminster Assembly, 1647

Passages

From the texts

• But you ought when you are alone to call this condition by the name of tranquillity and freedom, and to think yourself like to the gods; and when you are with many, you ought not to call it crowd, nor trouble, nor uneasiness, but festival and assembly, and so accept all contentedly.

  — Epictetus, The Discourses

• For duty is to be a practical, unconditional necessity of action; it must therefore hold for all rational beings (to whom an imperative can apply at all), and for this reason only be also a law for all human wills.

  — Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

Verified quotations

• To bear life remains, after all, the first duty of the living

  — Sigmund Freud, Reflections on War and Death

• Virtue is the strength of the man's maxim in his obedience to duty

  — Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics

• Do you think that a daughter’s duty is less binding than a doctor’s

  — Honoré de Balzac, Cousin Betty

• what deserves the first place in our studies is the consideration of GOD and our DUTY

  — George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

• It is a duty to do good to other men according to our power, whether we love them or not

  — Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics

• Duty! Thou sublime and mighty name that dost embrace nothing charming or insinuating, but requirest submission

  — Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason

Passages are verified quotations from the library that use one of these words: duty, duties, obligation, ought. Sentences under “From the texts” are copied word for word from the full texts in this library. Read each in its context on the work's page.