“As you must weigh and choose between your love
and filial duty, which will turn the scale?
She put aside all vows of love and troth—
a child first pays the debts of birth and care.”
Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 601–604
Original
Duyên hội ngộ, đức cù lao, Bên tình bên hiếu, bên nào nặng hơn? Để lời thệ hải minh sơn, Làm con trước phải đền ơn sinh thành.
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Nguyễn Du 12
Vietnamese poet 1765–1820Related quotes
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“All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love.”

“Do not
forget duty. But choose love when you can.”
Source: The Gray Wolf Throne

Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Context: You don't pay back your parents. You can't. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It's a sort of entailment. Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one.