Social Duty Quotes

The time for the State to protect himself against the criminal is before the criminal is made. Most criminals are not born, they are made.... What a State really punishes in a criminal is its own neglect, it's own failure to do its duty to the citizens.

The price of being oneself is so high and involves so much ruthlessness toward others (or what looks like ruthlessness in our duty-bound culture) that very few people can afford it.

It is the essence of responsibility to put the public good ahead of personal gain.

The greatest evils and the worst of crimes is poverty; our first duty, a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor.

It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense of supporting it. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.

It is the duty of the State to educate, and the right of the people to demand education.

It is up to us to live up to the legacy that was left for us, and to leave a legacy that is worthy of our children and of future generations.

It's an important social duty to spread the word of English to people whose livelihoods depend on knowing the language.

Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual… Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.

I think as you grow up, you realize you have obligations just in your life - being a citizen, being part of humanity - to help other people, to help your country, to help the world.

Responsibility, I believe, accrues through privilege.

Why is it so important for you to give back? I honestly feel like it's our responsibility as citizens of the world to ground ourselves in selflessness and all do our part.

We are citizens of an age, as well as of a State; and if it is held to be unseemly, or even inadmissible, for a man to cut himself off from the customs and manners of the circle in which he lives, why should it be less of a duty, in the choice of his activity, to submit his decision to the needs and the taste of his century?

Your sense of responsibility to others can never be excessive.

Poverty was nowhere more endurable than in a country where duty towards one's neighbor, that is, one's fellow-citizen, was practiced with the utmost piety, as a means of gaining the favor of God the King.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

The duty of the State toward the citizen is the duty of the servant to its master.... One of the duties of the State is that of caring for those of its citizens who find themselves the victims of such adverse circumstances as makes them unable to obtain even the necessities for mere existence without the aid of others.... To these unfortunate citizens aid must be extended by government--not as a matter of charity but as a matter of social duty.

I think we need to insist on a certain responsibility, which people have - particularly those who have made it into the ranks of the middle class because as [ Martin Luther] King said many years ago in a sense they have climbed out of the masses on the shoulders of their sisters and brothers and therefore, they do have some responsibility.

What we try to say is that it doesn't matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat or conservative or independent. You are equally responsible for your place in the culture, and you must make a contribution, and you must accept responsibility for what goes down on your watch.

I was raised to believe that everybody has a responsibility to their community.

Being a star comes with not just fame and fortune, but with awareness and responsibility.

It must be something extraordinary to be able to say to yourself that the happiness of every French person is in your hands.

What we need are not prohibitory marriage laws, but a reformed society, an educated public opinion which will teach individual duty in these matters.

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shrink neither.