Public Obligation Quotes

The rise of democracy was driven by the citizens' desire to escape from the paternalistic and arbitrary charity of those with money. They accomplished this by replacing charity with a fair, balanced, arm's-length system of public obligation. The principle tool of that obligation was taxation.

There can be no such thing as a state's right to default on a national duty.

We have the obligation to defy public opinion in the public interest.

You must come forth to any Publick Service, whereof you may be capable, when you are called unto it.

I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school. ... If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school?

It is not a government's obligation to provide services, but to see that they are provided.

I'll do the best I can for my family and for the fans.

Commonwealth has a right to the service of its citizens.

The president has an obligation to serve all the people of America.

I think celebrities have an obligation to the public to not just sing or act.

If there's anything a public servant hates to do it's something for the public.

I'm a shy guy... I don't enjoy being bothered but I never say no to a fan. I say yes to everybody... even though sometimes you have some days where you don't feel like it, but it's your duty as athlete to do it. Because the fans that pay it's going to make you live, so you have to do it. So I force myself to do it all the time.

What little recognition the idea of obligation to the public obtains in modern morality, is derived from Greek and Roman sources, not from Christian; as, even in the morality of private life, whatever exists of magnanimity, high-mindeness, personal dignity, even the sense of honour, is derived from the purely human, not the religious part of our education, and never could have grown out of a standard of ethics in which the only worth, professedly recognized, is that of obedience.