Obligation Quotes - Page 38

• There is a pleasure in meeting the glance of a person whom we have lately laid under some obligations.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Pleasure, Glances, Meetings

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• Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talks that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence. Inside its cocoon of work or social obligation, the human spirit slumbers for the most part, registering the distinction between pleasure and pain, but not nearly as alert as we pretend. There are periods in the most thrilling day during which nothing happens, and though we continue to exclaim, "I do enjoy myself", or , "I am horrified," we are insincere.

  E. M. Forster

  Pain, Book, Interesting

  'A Passage to India' (1924) ch. 14

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• It is past time for the U.S. government to fully fulfill our moral obligation to those who have fought for freedom and democracy.

  Tim Ryan

  Past, Government, Democracy

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• In short, it may be said that on paper the obligations to settle international disputes peacefully are now so comprehensive and far-reaching that it is almost impossible for a state to resort to war without violating one or more solemn treaty obligations.

  Arthur Henderson

  War, May, Paper

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• When the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted, those high contracting parties did positively agree that they would not interfere with religious affairs. Now, if our marital relations are not religious, what is? This ordinance of marriage was a direct revelation to us, through Joseph Smith, the prophet. . . . This is a revelation from God and a command to his people, and therefore it is my religion. I do not believe that the Supreme Court of the United States has any right to interfere with my religious views, and in doing it they are violating their most sacred obligations.

  John Taylor

  Religious, Party, Believe

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• All laws that are proper and correct, and all obligations entered into which are not violative of the constitution should be kept inviolate. But if they are violative of the constitution, then the compact between the rulers and the ruled is broken and the obligation ceases to be binding.

  John Taylor

  Law, Broken, Constitution

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• The moment we begin tolerating meanness, in ourselves and others, we are using our authorial power in the service of wrongdoing. We have both the capacity and the obligation to do better.

  Martha Beck

  Moments, Capacity, Meanness

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• A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed or duty violated is still with us, for our happiness or our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are yet with us.

  Daniel Webster

  Happiness, Morning, Light

  Daniel Webster, Edward Everett (1853). “Works: with a Biographical Memoir”, p.105

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• National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman, and that there is an obligation to perform such a duty absolutely irrespective of party politics or factional differences.

  John Adams

  Party, Differences, Voting

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• The study and practice of law ... does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of religion.

  John Adams

  Law, Practice, Doe

  John Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.32

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• For however often a man may receive an obligation from you, if you refuse a request, all former favors are effaced by this one denial.

  Pliny the Younger

  Men, Denial, Favors

  "Epistulae". Book by Pliny the Younger, III. 4,

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• Honor puts us under an obligation as binding as necessity is for other people.

  Pliny the Younger

  People, Honor, Binding

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• Whether in times of war or times of peace the Quaker is under peculiar obligation to assist and to forward movements and forces which make for peace in the world and which bind men together in ties of unity and fellowship.

  Rufus Jones

  War, Men, Ties

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• If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, the little guy is going to win in court before me, ... But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well, then the big guy is going to win because my obligation is to the Constitution.

  John Roberts

  Winning, Guy, Littles

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• I feel no obligation to teach my readers anything, to impart any sort of wisdom, to teach any sort of lesson, to instill any sort of morality. All I'm trying to do is make them and their parents laugh.

  Michael Ian Black

  Laughing, Parent, Trying

  "Michael Ian Black on his surprising turn as a noted children's book author". Interview with Kyle Ryan, www.avclub.com. October 13, 2015.

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• Valentine's Day is much more of a holy day of obligation for a guy in a relationship with a woman, because a woman has certain emotional expectations. Even if she doesn't value Valentine's Day, or views it as a corporate exercise, she still often wants her boyfriend or husband to go through the motions, just in case she values it.

  Dan Savage

  Husband, Valentine, Exercise

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. February 8, 2006.

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• I'm not a writer, but today I think you have to be everything. As an artist you have an obligation to let people know what is on your mind and why you're doing this.

  Ai Weiwei

  Thinking, Artist, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I knew that we had an obligation and that was to keep an energy in it and try to keep the audience interested. In fact, I asked some of the actors to take a look at His Girl Friday, a Howard Hawks film with Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant, because they talk over each other and there's a great energy.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Girl, Friday, Trying

  "Quartet - Dustin Hoffman interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• Choice. It's the word that allows yes and the word that makes no possible. It's the word that puts the free in freedom and takes obligation out of the mix. It's the word upon which adventure, exhilaration, and authenticity depend. It's the word that the cocoon whispers to the caterpillar.

  Tom Robbins

  Adventure, Choices, Cocoons

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• A man who knows a thing, who is aware of a given danger, and sees the possibility of a remedy with his own eyes, has the duty and obligation, by God, not to work 'silently,' but to stand up before the whole public against the evil and for its cure.

  Adolf Hitler

  Eye, Men, Evil

  Adolf Hitler (1971). “Mein Kampf”, Mariner Books

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• John Calvin's theology emphasizes the sanctity of conscience, the sanctity of companionate marriage, and the obligation of those in power to attend to the well-being of the people in general, especially the poor. Interestingly, for the interpretation of Hamlet, for example, he forbids even the thought of revenge. This is not the Calvin of myth, but when the Elizabethans read him there was no such myth, nor would there be now, if he were read.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Revenge, People, Example

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• But times and tempers are changed. Rebels are everywhere to be found who no longer wish to obey the law without knowing whence it comes, what are its uses, and whither arises the obligation to submit to it, and the reverence with which it is encompassed. The rebels of our day are criticizing the very foundations of society which have hitherto been held sacred, and first and foremost amongst them that fetish, law.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Law, Knowing, Wish

  "Law and Authority". "Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets". Book edited by Roger N. Baldwin, 1927.

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• If you find that somebody is not grateful for all that you have done for him, then do not get disappointed because often you will find that someone else feels under your obligation though you have done nothing for him and thus your good deeds will be compensated, and Allah will reward you for your goodness.

  Ali ibn Abi Talib

  Grateful, Deeds, Rewards

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• It is the obligation of each person in Israel to raise up the Fallen Bride from the dust into which She has fallen.

  Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

  Israel, Dust, Fallen

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• Among its many other obligations, fiction always has to be believable. Life does not have to suffer such constraint, and much of what takes place is believable only because it happens.

  John McGahern

  Suffering, Doe, Fiction

  John McGahern (2009). “Creatures of the Earth: New and Selected Stories”, p.3, Faber & Faber

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