"Sense of Duty"

“Had rather a lot of work today, a great many trifling matters – but they’re my duty – if one had no sense of duty, who would be able to collect his thoughts at all, but a sense of duty sanctifies things and joins them together, and turns many small things into one large one”.

Vincent van Gogh. From the letter to Theo van Gogh. Dordrecht, 26 Feb. 1877
http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let103/letter.html