Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Responsibility

The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.
Stanley Milgram (1933–84) American Social Psychologist

Why do children want to grow up? Because they experience their lives as constrained by immaturity and perceive adulthood as a condition of greater freedom and opportunity. But what is there today, in America, that very poor and very rich adolescents want to do but cannot do? Not much: they can “do” drugs, “have” sex, “make” babies, and “get” money (from their parents, crime, or the State). For such adolescents, adulthood becomes synonymous with responsibility rather than liberty. Is it any surprise that they remain adolescents?
Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian-American Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst

No one to blame! That was why most people led lives they hated, with people they hated. How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one’s nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right. You may be fragmented, but you feel absolved of all the blame for it. Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Feminist

Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.
Jonas Salk (1914–95) American Microbiologist

The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do—by yourself, upon your own initiative.
Harry Browne (1933–2006) American Politician, Investor, Writer

We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.
Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author

Responsibility is a tremendous engine in a free government
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer

It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself, and no one else, has made it.
Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist

Those who are unwilling to invest in the future haven’t earned one.
Harold Warren Lewis

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer

You have given me a great responsibility: to stay close to you, to be worthy of you and to exemplify what you are.
Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader

If the master takes no account of his servants, they will make small account of him, and care not what they spend, as they are never brought to an audit.
Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian

No one will dare maintain that it is better to do injustice than to bear it.
Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar

Taking responsibility means being aware of where and when you are NOT taking responsibility so that you can eventually change.
Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author

The price of greatness is responsibility.
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author

From my experience, not one in twenty marries the first love; we build statues of snow, and weep to see them melt.
Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer

Responsibility: A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one’s neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist

In times like the present men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State

The price of power is responsibility for the public good.
Winthrop W. Aldrich (1885–1974) American Banker, Diplomat

It is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist

We are each responsible for all of our experiences.
Louise Hay (b.1926) American Author

Power without responsibility—the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist

Responsibility is the price of freedom.
Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher

I am responsible for everything except for my very responsibility, for I am not the foundation of my being. Therefore everything takes place as if I were compelled to be responsible. I am abandoned in the world… in the sense that I find myself suddenly alone and without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away from this responsibility for an instant.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist

We must exchange the philosophy of excuse—what I am is beyond my control—for the philosophy of responsibility.
Barbara Jordan (1936–96) American Lawyer, Educator, Politician

Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer

A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says, “I was beaten”. He does not say, “My men were beaten”. Thus speaks a real man.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator

Good men prefer to be accountable.
Michael Edwardes (1930–2019) South African-British Business Executive

Although you should not erase your responsibility for the past, when you make the past your jailer, you destroy your future. It is such a great moment of liberation when you learn to forgive yourself, let the burden go, and walk out into a new path of promise and possibility.
John O’Donohue (1956–2008) Irish Priest, Hegelian Philosopher

Ef you take a sword an’ dror it,
An’ go stick a feller thru,
Guv’ment ain’t to answer for it,
God’ll send the bill to you.
James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic

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