Literary notes about duty (AI summary)
The term "duty" in literature is employed to encapsulate a wide array of obligations, ranging from moral imperatives and personal responsibilities to legal and fiscal commitments. In many works, it is portrayed as an inevitable call to moral action or social responsibility—be it the duty of the rich to aid the poor [1], the indispensable task of a doctor [2], or the unwritten obligations that bind an individual to honor and societal expectations [3][4]. At the same time, duty can take on a more concrete or transactional dimension, such as the duty imposed by law on trade [5][6] or the responsibility inherent in professional and national service [7][8]. Thus, literature reflects "duty" as a multifaceted concept that binds individuals to the moral, social, and political fabric of their worlds.
- Of course the poor ought to be helped, it’s the duty of the rich.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - It’s a doctor’s duty, you know—and I went up to her and bled her, told them to put on a mustard-plaster, and prescribed a mixture.
— from Best Russian Short Stories - You must therefore allow me to follow the dictates of my conscience on this occasion, which leads me to perform what I look on as a point of duty.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - It is our duty, then, to be more ready to endanger our own than the public welfare and to hazard honour and glory more readily than other advantages.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero - The sale of moveables, when it is ordered by a court of justice, is subject to the like duty of two and a-half per cent.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - the quarter, was subjected to a duty of 16s.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - Some young artillery officers, serving on board the bomb vessels, refused to let their men perform any other duty but what related to the mortars.
— from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey - Express order has charged D'Agoust with the sad duty of arresting two individuals: M. Duval d'Espremenil and M. Goeslard de Monsabert.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
