Character and Conduct – 17 February – The Iron Chains of Duty

… ONE conviction I have gained from the experience of the last years – life is not jest and amusement;  life is not even enjoyment…   life is hard labour.   Renunciation, continual renunciation – that is its secret meaning, its solution.   Not the fulfilment of cherished dreams and aspirations, however lofty they may be – the fulfilment of duty, that is what must be the care of man.   Without laying on himself chains, the iron chains of duty, he cannot reach without a fall the end of his career.

A Lear of the Steppes, IVAN TURGENEV

GRANTED that life is tragic to the marrow, it seems the proper function of religion to make us accept and serve in that tragedy, as officers in that other and comparable one of war.  Service is the word, active service, in the military sense;  and the religious man is he who has a military joy in duty – not he who weeps over the wounded.

Lay Morals, R. L. STEVENSON

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing the her readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.