Duty

Duty does not have to be dull. Love can make it beautiful and fill it with fire - Thomas Merton

To be honest, to be kind; to earn a little and to spend a little less; to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence; to  renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered;  to keep a few friends, but those without capitulation; above all, on the same grim conditions to  keep friends with himself; here is a task for all that man has of fortitude and delicacy.

John Lubbock says, if there is doubt between two duties, take the nearest. Some worthy people neglect their family for the sake of the heathen, but duty like charity, should begin at home.

When Jawaharlal Nehru died, at his bedside in his own writing, were found the lines from Robert Frost: 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.

When Marcus Aurelius, appointed the prefect of the praetorium, he gave him a sword, saying, “You will use this sword to defend my life as long as I am faithful to my duty. But if I should fail in my duty, you will use it to punish me. And know my duty is to make the Romans happy.

There is no duty we underrate so much as the duty of being happy.

Sr (Dr) Lilly Thokkanattu SJL