It is not in strength, for Myro and Ofellius were not happy; not in wealth, for Croesus was not happy; not in power, for the Consuls were not happy; not in all these together, for Nero and Sardanapulus and Agamemnon sighed and wept and tore their hair, and were the slaves of circumstances and the dupes of semblances.

It lies in yourselves; in true freedom, in the absence or conquest of every ignoble fear; in perfect self-government; and in a power of contentment and peace, and the even flow of life amid poverty, exile, disease, and the very valley of the shadow of death." [163] The sense of duty is a sustaining power even to a courageous man.
It holds him upright, and makes him strong.

It was a noble saying of Pompey, when his friends tried to dissuade him from embarking for Rome in a storm, telling him that he did so at the great peril of his life: "It is necessary for me to go," he said; "it is not necessary for me to live." What it was right that he should do, he would do, in the face of danger and in defiance of storms.
As might be expected of the great Washington, the chief motive power in his life was the spirit of duty.

It was the regal and commanding element in his character which gave it unity, compactness, and vigour.

When he clearly saw his duty before him, he did it at all hazards, and with inflexible integrity.