Duty & Responsibility quotes for UPSC & State PCS

To live without duties is obscene.

Freedom and power bring responsibility.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Sooner or later we have all to pay for what we do.

He who, when he may, forbids not sin, commands it.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

Privilege is here, and with privilege goes responsibility.

We are called upon not to be successful, but to be faithful.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.

Indifferentism is the worst kind of disease that can affect people.

I do what is mine to do; the rest doesn't disturb me. (Hays translation)

Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.

No man can have society upon his own terms. If he seeks it, he must serve it too.

Care not for time and success. Act out thy part, whether it be to fail or to prosper.

We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.

Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.

The dignity of mankind is in your hands; protect it! It sinks with you! With you it will ascend.

Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.

Those that say that individuals are not capable of changing anything are only looking for excuses.

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.

It is the duty of every man, so far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.

He was a man who looked at what ought to be done, not to the reputation which is got by a man's acts.

Ignorance in other men may be censured as idleness, in an academick it must be abhorred as treachery.

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

We are not born for ourselves alone; a part of us is claimed by our nation, another part by our friends.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

I am well aware, that men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told of their duty.

Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can.

The performance of duty, and not an indulgence in vapid ease and vapid pleasure, is all that makes life worth while.

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.

It is not enough for the economist in a free society to be a good economic craftsman; he must also think and act as a citizen.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

To me, the level of responsibility is measured by one's ability to confront the decision-making process without any delay or distraction.

Citizenship demands a sense of common purpose; participation in the hard work of self-government; an obligation to serve to our communities.

We plant trees, we build stone houses, we redeem the waste, we make prospective laws, we found colleges and hospitals, for remote generations.

It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use. We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.

You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruits of action be your motive, but do not attach yourself to nonaction.

The real test of a man is not how well he plays the role he has invented for himself, but how well he plays the role that destiny assigned to him.

A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.

For the true author of the subjugation of a people is not so much the immediate agent, as the power which permits it having the means to prevent it.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated, till it attains years of discretion.

Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom. If we can bring ourselves down by our karma, surely it is in our power to raise ourselves by our own karma.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

All for each, and each for all, is a good motto; but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain himself as not to be a burden to others.

It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens and of every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before the comfort, the convenience of himself.

I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.

Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each one of us individually.

When the history of our times is written, will we be remembered as the generation that turned our backs in a moment of global crisis or will it be recorded that we did the right thing?

To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing.

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.

There lay certitude; there, in the daily round. All the rest hung on mere threads and trivial contingencies; you couldn't waste your time on it. The thing was to do your job as it should be done.

The duty of the scholar, of the educated man, of the man or woman whom society has developed talents in, the duty of that man or woman is to help build the society which has made their own advancement possible.

Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past — let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon anyone outside, but stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find that is always true. Get hold of yourself.

A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated by it as enemies.

When one is over rated in this way, it is very natural to complain, or to feel disgust at the ingratitude of the world; tho' I believe with you, that to persevere in one's duty and be silent, is the best answer to calumny.

One's own duty, even if imperfectly performed, is better than being done by other even if well performed. Death in (performance of) one's own duty is preferable. (The adoption of) the duty of another carries fear (with it).

Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourself. Therefore make your own future.

We have come out of the time when obedience, the acceptance of discipline, intelligent courage and resolution were most important, into that more difficult time when it is a man's duty to understand his world rather than simply fight for it.

Because much has been given to you, therefore we have a right to expect much from you; and we have a right to expect that you shall begin to give that much just as soon as you leave school and go to college, so that you shall count when you are there.

And we’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and do more to encourage fatherhood — because what makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one.

I have had a larger responsibility of human lives than ever man or woman had before. And I attribute my success to this — I never gave or took an excuse. Yes, I do see the difference now between me and other men. When a disaster happens, I act and they make excuses.

Truly, if the preservation of all mankind, as much as in him lies, were every one's persuasion, as indeed it is every one's duty, and the true principle to regulate our religion, politicks and morality by, the world would be much quieter, and better natur'd than it is.

Whenever the general disposition of the people is such, that each individual regards those only of his interests which are selfish, and does not dwell on, or concern himself for, his share of the general interest, in such a state of things, good government is impossible.

We cannot abdicate our conscience to an organization, nor to a government. 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Most certainly I am! I cannot escape my responsibility by saying the State will do all that is necessary. It is a tragedy that nowadays so many think and feel otherwise.

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife. But the problems are such that for anybody with a conscience who can use whatever influence he may have to try to bring about peace, it's difficult to say no.

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.

Human destiny will be what we make of it. And here in Prague, let us honor our past by reaching for a better future. Let us bridge our divisions, build upon our hopes, accept our responsibility to leave this world more prosperous and more peaceful than we found it. Together we can do it.

It's not hard to stand behind one's successes. But to accept responsibility for one's failures... that is devishly hard! But only thence does the road lead... to a radically new insight into the mysterious gravity of my existence as an uncertain enterprise and to its transcendental meaning.

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. 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.

It is the fundamental duty of the citizen to resist and to restrain the violence of the state. Those who choose to disregard this responsibility can justly be accused of complicity in war crimes, which is itself designated as ‘a crime under international law’ in the principles of the Charter of Nuremberg.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Let the eye of vigilance never be closed.

You don't need a diploma to plant a tree.

The leader is always alone before bad fates.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.

He who does not punish evil commands it to be done.

I die the king's faithful servant, and God's first.

It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.

The manly part is to do with might and main what you can do.

Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.

The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.

It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.

When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

Life has a value only when it has something valuable as its object.

Every noble crown is, and on earth will forever be, a crown of thorns.

Real generosity toward the future consists in giving all to the present.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

That the situation is hopeless should not prevent us from doing our best.

The world is not ours to keep. We hold it in trust for future generations.

Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.

Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant.

No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. (Hays translation)

Often injustice lies in what you aren't doing, not only in what you are doing.

Liberty trains for liberty. Responsibility is the first step in responsibility.

The incident seemed to prove to me that intentions, good or bad, are not enough.

Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.

There is always a strong case for doing nothing, especially for doing nothing yourself.

Courage is not the absence of fear but the awareness that something else is more important.

My teachers helped guide and motivate me; but the responsibility of learning was left with me.

If I do an evil action, I must suffer for it; there is no power in this universe to stop or stay it.

The world cares very little what you or I know, but it does care a great deal about what you or I do.

You may never know what results come of your actions. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day. 18px|frameless QOTD 2007·11·07 Sound file

Think a hundred times before you take any decision, but once a decision is taken, stand by it as one man.

A management decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future.

It may be providence's will that the cause I represent may prosper more by my suffering than by my remaining free.

To blend, without coercion, the individual good and the common good is the essence of citizenship in a free country.

The free world knows, out of the bitter wisdom of experience, that vigilance and sacrifice are the price of liberty.

The manager is a servant. His master is the institution he manages and his first responsibility must therefore be to it.

We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces.

Hadst thou not Greek enough to understand thus much: The end of man is an Action, and not a Thought, though it were the noblest.

Future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of prudent concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life.

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

For in order to command well, we should know how to submit; and he who submits with a good grace will some time become worthy of commanding.

Nationalism is not about hating foreigners and wanting to kill the others. It's about loving our compatriots... and... paying taxes honestly...

Yes, there was an element of abstraction and unreality in misfortune. But when an abstraction starts to kill you, you have to get to work on it.

Relegating conservation to government is like relegating virtue to the Sabbath. Turns over to professionals what should be daily work of amateurs.

History is not like some individual person, which uses men to achieve its ends. History is nothing but the actions of men in pursuit of their ends.

Public life is a situation of power and energy; he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy.

Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop doing such good.

The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.

That loyalty to the country comes ahead of all other loyalties. And this is an absolute loyalty, since one cannot weight it in terms of what one receives.

I have expressed an opinion on public issues whenever they appeared to me so bad and unfortunate that silence would have made me feel guilty of complicity.

Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.

A destruction only man can provoke, only man can prevent. Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.

Many persons have a wrong of idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

The responsibility of the writer as a moral agent is to try to bring the truth about matters of human significance to an audience that can do something about them.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if the drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of the missing drop.

By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.

I agree with you that it is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.

Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.

You ask me why I do not write something... I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.

This man talked like he could build the barns by himself, like he could till the soil by himself. And he failed to realize that wealth is always a result of the commonwealth.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.

People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing—refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.

to seek office oneself and not await compulsion is thought disgraceful. But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule.

Sampling out corruption is a very tough job, but I say so in all seriousness that we would be failing in our duty if we do not tackle this problem seriously and with determination.

Who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.

For what else are you busied with except improving yourself every day, laying aside some error, and coming to understand that the faults which you attribute to circumstances are in yourself?

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

The duty of the survivor is to bear testimony to what happened . . . You have to warn people that these things can happen, that evil can be unleashed. Race hatred, violence, idolatries—they still flourish.

Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children. And if you don't help us, who else in the world can help us do this?

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. ...Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.

All my life, I have served the fatherland, the revolution and the people with all my heart and strength. If I should now depart from this world, I would have nothing to regret, except not being able to serve longer and more.

The police... should never go on strike. Theirs was an essential service and they should render that service, irrespective of their pay. There were several other effective and honourable means of getting grievances redressed.

To remain indifferent to the challenges we face is indefensible. If the goal is noble, whether or not it is realized within our lifetimes is largely irrelevant. What we must do, therefore, is to strive and persevere and never give up.

The greatest danger to our future is apathy. We cannot expect those living in poverty and ignorance to worry about saving the world. For those of us able to read this magazine, it is different. We can do something to preserve our planet.

People have a tendency to blame politicians when things don't work, but as I always tell people, you get the politicians you deserve. And if you don't vote and you don't pay attention, you'll get policies that don't reflect your interest.

No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path Buddhas merely teach the way. By ourselves is evil done, By ourselves is pain endured, By ourselves we cease from wrong, By ourselves become we pure.

Not by not acting in this world does one become free from action, nor does one approach perfection by renunciation only. Not even for a moment does someone exist without acting. Even against one’s will, one acts by the nature-born qualities.

Freedom is not an accident. Progress is not an accident. Democracy is not an accident. These are things that have to be fought for. You’re part of that legacy. They must be won. And they’ve got to be tended to constantly and defended without fail.

A tiny blue dot set in a sunbeam. Here it is. That's where we live. That's home. We humans are one species and this is our world. It is our responsibility to cherish it. Of all the worlds in our solar system, the only one so far as we know, graced by life.

The claims of the most backward sections like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who have suffered neglect and have hard to endure disabilities for many centuries. It would be my proud privilege to work for the establishment of a more just social order.

A commander in chief ought to say to himself several times a day: If the enemy should appear on my front, on my right, on my left, what would I do? And if the question finds him uncertain, he is not well placed, he is not as he should be, and he should remedy it.

The duty of the cadres is to love and take care of every fighter and to value and save every cent, every bowl of rice, every work hour of their compatriots. Our fighters and compatriots have the right to demand that the cadres fulfill this task, and to criticize those who do not.

But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years.

When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.

So those of us who believe in democracy, we need to speak out forcefully, because both the facts and history, I believe, are on our side. That doesn’t mean democracies are without flaws. It does mean that the cure for what ails our democracies is greater engagement by our citizens -- not less.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done.

And finally, let’s remember that peace with justice depends on our ability to sustain both the security of our societies and the openness that defines them. Threats to freedom don’t merely come from the outside. They can emerge from within -- from our own fears, from the disengagement of our citizens.

I submit respectfully to the House as a general principle that our responsibility in this matter is directly proportionate to our power. Where there is great power there is great responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility.

I understand why war is not popular, but I also know this: The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice. That's why NATO continues to be indispensable. That's why we must strengthen U.N. and regional peacekeeping, and not leave the task to a few countries.