Not all beings are subject to moral assessment; we do not judge rocks to be dutiful because they never violate a moral duty.
Following the exile of Captain Alfred Dreyfus after his wrongful conviction for spying for Germany against France, his wife, Lucie, was portrayed as a bourgeois heroine, the epitome of the dutiful Victorian spouse.
Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh's fine film about the genesis of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado, took two well-deserved Oscars for costume and make-up, but these look like the Academy's dutiful, uncomprehending nod to something heritage and picturesque.
As a dutiful Liberal – it was party policy even then – I moved an amendment calling on my council to support a local income tax in its reply to the consultation.
Tom was desperate to be dutiful and presumably pleased when the reservist Yeomanry regiment he commanded was posted to Egypt.
It also seemed less passionate, more dutiful and far wealthier: there were a lot of late-model luxury cars in the parking lot.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads Fatah, continues to hold dutiful meetings with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, but they look like leading nowhere.The latest cause of Israeli uncertainty is that the Labour party, the junior partner to Mr Olmert's centrist Kadima in the ruling coalition, is choosing a new leader.
Suddenly, it was as if Mr Bush was giving a different speech, powerful where he had been dutiful, passionate where he had been plodding.
In response, Mr Bush produced, in the first half of his speech, a dutiful laundry list.First on that list was his ambitious $670 billion tax cut.
At any meeting between dignitaries from Greece and China, dutiful reference is made to the two nations' ancient cultures, both of which left a tangible legacy in the shape of high-quality ceramics, sculptures and the musings of poets and philosophers.
Ms Munro's light touch and her sensitive embellishment of the truth result in a book that is illuminated by the patterns of life repeating themselves over the years: quiet domesticity is coupled with hope; taciturn fathers work without complaint; mothers are frugal and dutiful.
