Quality................

. . . a man’s quality is tested by his ability to act contrary to his own interests whenever it becomes necessary.

-from this Hammock Papers post on noblesse oblige

Escape....................

 “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”

-John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

Strive.............................

      Col. William Draper, President Eisenhower's Air Force One pilot, told former president Eisenhower that after many years of service he was being forced into retirement because of a heart problem, which would necessitate a new career as an airline executive.  He confided that he was worried about whether he would be able to succeed in the corporate world.  On listening to Draper, Ike said to his longtime pilot, "Go ahead, be scared, and do it anyway."

     Whether Eisenhower was frightened or scared we will never know.  But he once articulated his simple formula in a letter to Mamie that contained the critical word.  He wrote that it was imperative on him to "struggle is to do one's best; to keep the brain and the conscience clear; never be swayed by unworthy motives of inconsequential reasons, but to strive to unearth the basic factors involved and then do one's duty."

-Susan Eisenhower, How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions

Call it an investment.....................

When you've done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?

-Marcus Aurelius,  Meditations, Book 7:73

      So why on earth do you need thanks or recognition for having done the right thing?  It's your job.

-Ryan Holiday, from today's entry in The Daily Stoic

Civic duty...........................

Almost did not vote in the primary election today.  Only one contested race.  But, duty called.  Ohio (at least Licking County) has new voting machines.  They are high tech but seem very cool, and they create a piece of paper, which I like.  Still, not sure it is an improvement over the old punch card system.  Regardless, duty performed.

Stark forces..............................

     Here's where McKinley showed the iron resolve normally kept shrouded behind his countenance of magnanimity.  Having explained how the stark forces of reality had imposed upon America the unsolicited duty of receivership, the president made clear there would be no turning back, no wavering, and no hand-wringing.  "Grave problems come in the life of a nation," said McKinley, "however much men may seek to avoid them.  They come without our seeking,—why, we do not know, and it is not always given to us to  know,—but the generation on which they are forced cannot avoid the responsibility of honestly striving for their solution."

-Robert W. Merry, President McKinley:  Architect of the American Century

Duty...........................

“Fear is never a good counselor and victory over fear is the first spiritual duty of man.” 

-Nicolas Berdyaev, philosopher 

thanks Tony

On duty...................................

Some philosophers - not necessarily the ablest - are impressive through their quality of intellectual honesty.  Of these a very good example was Henry Sidgwick, who was my teacher in ethics.  In his youth fellowships at Cambridge were only open to those who would sign the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.  Years after he had signed them, he developed doubts, and, though not expected to affirm that his beliefs remained unchanged, decided that it was his duty to resign.  This action hastened the change in the law which put an end to the old theological restrictions.  As a teacher, he showed the same honesty, and considered objections by pupils as courteously and carefully as if they had been made by colleagues.  This made his teaching more fruitful than that of many abler men.

-Bertrand Russell, from his essay, Eminent Men I Have Know, as found here

Duty.................................

"The first duty of love is to listen."

-Paul Tillich

Couldn't agree more........................

".........love is a better teacher than sense of duty"


-as culled from here

More courage and resolution.......

... but Old Age has no certain Limits;  it may end sooner or later.  All we have to do, is live well while it lasts, and do our best to discharge the respective Duties of our Station, with a just Contempt of Death, that, come when it will, we may without Surprize be prepared for it.  And this will give Old Age more Courage and Resolution, than even Youth itself in its highest Vigour can pretend to. 

-Marcus Tullius Cicero, as extracted from The Cato Major, Or His Discourse Of Old-Age:  With Explanatory Notes

Who knows..........................

..............why this simple post has far and away more page views than any other post on this blog.  There have been other Adler quotes;  most received little traffic.  The subject post as taken from Mortimer J. Alder's essay Duty in his book, Great Ideas:  A Lexicon of Western Thought.  Just for our edification, here are a few more paragraphs from that essay:

      The tragedy of being both rational and animal seems to consist in having to choose between duty and desire rather than in making any particular choice.  It may be significant, however, that the tragic heroes of poetry more frequently abandon duty than desire or love, though seldom without moral punishment, preceded by a deep sense of their transgression. Sometimes, however, they are self-deceived, and cloak desire in the guise of duty.

     There is another source of tragic conflict in the sphere of duty.  Men are torn by competing loyalties, obligations which pull them in opposite directions.  In the basic relationships of family, the duty a  man owes to his parents often cannot be discharged without violating or neglecting obligations to his wife.  When the moral law and the law of the state command contrary actions, duty is weighed against duty in an ordeal of conscience...

     According to the theory of constitutional government, rights and duties are correlative.  Acknowledgment of duties signifies that the holder of rights recognizes their limited or conditional character.  To consider oneself  entirely exempt from duties or obligations is to regard one's rights as absolute.  Can anyone have absolute rights except on condition of being without a superior of any sort?  One implied answer to this question is that neither despot nor state, but only God, is autonomous or without duty.

One thing's for certain............................

....................guilty or not-guilty, it will be a thoughtful verdict.

Chuck Yeager...............................

Michael Wade posted a quote by Chuck Yeager.  Yeager's story is here.  Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff brought Yeager, the first person to pilot a plane through the "sound barrier", into the limelight of public attention.  Here are a few more quotes:

You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up.

What good does it do to be afraid? It doesn't help anything. You better try and figure out what's happening and correct it.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.

The one word you use in military flying is duty. It's your duty. You have no control over outcome, no control over pick-and-choose. It's duty.

If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing.

One of the iconic moments in The Right Stuff  was when Yeager, pushed the NF-104 Starfighter beyond its capacity:

Yeager posing inspecting the NF-105 Starfighter

Yeager flew the Starfighter some 104,000 feet above the earth

The plane couldn't function at that altitude

the movie version of that flight, with Sam Shepard channeling Yeager, is here.

Duty.....................................................

Do your duty, always;  but without attachment.   That is how a man reaches the ultimate Truth; by working without anxiety about results.
-Bhagavad-Gita

Ordinary..............................

"All higher motives, ideals, conceptions, sentiments in a man are of no account if they do not come forward to strengthen him for the better discharge of the duties which devolve upon him in the ordinary affairs of life."
-Henry Ward Beecher

Trifle..................................

God requires a faithful fulfilment of the merest trifle given us to do, rather than the most ardent aspiration to things to which we are not called.
-St. Francis de Sales