Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Diligence \Dil"i*gence\, n. [F. diligence, L. diligentia.]
   1. The quality of being diligent; carefulness; careful
      attention; -- the opposite of negligence.

   2. Interested and persevering application; devoted and
      painstaking effort to accomplish what is undertaken;
      assiduity in service.

            That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified
            in; and the best of me is diligence.  --Shak.

   3. (Scots Law) Process by which persons, lands, or effects
      are seized for debt; process for enforcing the attendance
      of witnesses or the production of writings.

   {To do one's diligence}, {give diligence}, {use diligence},
      to exert one's self; to make interested and earnest
      endeavor.

            And each of them doth all his diligence To do unto
            the fest['e] reverence.               --Chaucer.

   Syn: Attention; industry; assiduity; sedulousness;
        earnestness; constancy; heed; heedfulness; care;
        caution. -- {Diligence}, {Industry}. Industry has the
        wider sense of the two, implying an habitual devotion to
        labor for some valuable end, as knowledge, property,
        etc. Diligence denotes earnest application to some
        specific object or pursuit, which more or less directly
        has a strong hold on one's interests or feelings. A man
        may be diligent for a time, or in seeking some favorite
        end, without meriting the title of industrious. Such was
        the case with Fox, while Burke was eminent not only for
        diligence, but industry; he was always at work, and
        always looking out for some new field of mental effort.

              The sweat of industry would dry and die, But for
              the end it works to.                --Shak.

              Diligence and accuracy are the only merits which
              an historical writer ascribe to himself. --Gibbon.