Famous Quotes:  Duty & Responsibility
  Fasttrack Civics Project
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   The quotations below are compiled by David Burns for the use of students and others interested in exploring these topics further.  The inclusion of a quote does not necessarily imply that Mr. Burns agrees with its point of view.

Duty & Responsibility

   I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
   I woke, and found that life was Duty.   
   Ellen Sturgis Hooper, American poet, "I Slept, and Dreamed that Life was Beauty," published in The Dial, 1840.

    Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
   Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Cooper Union, New York, 1860.

   Duty is the sublimest word in our language.  Do your duty in all things.  You cannot do more.  You should never wish to do less.
   Robert E. Lee, Confederate General during the Civil War.

    All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word:  freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.
   Winston Churchill, English leader during World War Two.

Duty & Responsibility

    I seen my duty and I done it.
   Slang expression in common use since the 1700s.

   Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and let him know that you trust him.
   Booker T. Washington, African-American leader  and educator in the decades after the Civil War.

   I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
   John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in Ten Principles, 1941.

   The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
   Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader.

  If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
   Abigail Van Buren, American newspaper advice columnist.





Copyright Notice

Copyright 2006 by David A. Burns.  All rights reserved.  No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.