Q0376

Talmudic tradition

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
Thinker Talmudic tradition
School Jewish wisdom literature
Source Mishnah Avot 2: 16
Theme Responsibility
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Mishnah Avot 2: 16, within the tradition of Jewish wisdom literature. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of responsibility, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Talmudic tradition's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Talmudic tradition. (n.d.). It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0376

MLA: Talmudic tradition. “It is not your duty to finish the….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0376.

Chicago: Talmudic tradition. “It is not your duty to finish the….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0376.

Same thinker

More from Talmudic tradition

  1. Teach your tongue to say, “I do not know.”
  2. If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?

All quotations by Talmudic tradition

Same theme

More on responsibility

  1. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  2. Existence precedes essence.
  3. Man is condemned to be free.
  4. In choosing himself, man chooses all men.
  5. The Master said: The gentleman seeks it in himself; the petty person seeks it in others.

Browse the responsibility theme