[O]nly those actions are ethical which involve more than is strictly required. If we so behave that we do no more than is required of us, we merely live honestly, but we do not on that account deserve honour; but if we do more than is strictly demanded, our action is worthy of honour, and we are then truly honourable men.
(Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics, trans. Louis Infield, The Library of Religion and Culture, ed. Benjamin Nelson [New York: Harper & Row, 1963 (first published in 1930)], 50)
