How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
The great problem of the shifting relation between passion and duty is clear to no man who is capable of apprehending it: the question, whether the moment has come in which a man has fallen below the possibility of renunciation that will carry any efficacy, and must accept the sway of a passion against which he had struggled as a trespass, is one for which we have no master key that will fit all cases. (7.2.26)
This passage sums up the book’s views on the difficulties of reconciling passion and duty. Basically, there is not "master key," or single solution, to the problem. Every case is different and every individual has to manage the tensions between passion and duty differently, choosing different things, depending on the situation.
Quote #11
"We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment or whether we will renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within us - for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives." (6.14.110)
Maggie here sees choice itself as a decision made between the present, or the selfish desires of the moment, and the "divine voice," or her sense of morality, which is tied up in family duty and memory.