One must care about a world one will not see.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do for which we are accountable.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
The price of greatness is responsibility.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Responsible persons are mature people who have taken charge of themselves and their conduct, who own their actions and own up to them—who answer for them.
—William Bennett (b.1943) American Politician, Political Theorist, Government Official
Accept the consequences of your actions in order to become the agent of your mental, physical, spiritual and material success.
—Les Brown
Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility … In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have … is the ability to take on responsibility.
—Michael Korda (b.1933) English-born Writer, Novelist
In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for “finding himself.” If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
Responsibility is the thing people dread most of all. Yet it is the one thing in the world that develops us, gives us manhood or womanhood fiber.
—Frank Hall Crane (1873–1948) American Stage and Film Actor, Director
Man has responsibility, not power.
—American Indian Proverb
How we love to blame others for our misfortunes! Almost every individual who has lost money in stock speculation has on the tip of his tongue an explanation which he trots out to show that it wasn’t his own fault at all … Hardly one loser has the manliness to say frankly, “I was wrong”.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will – his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
You take on the responsibility for making your dream a reality.
—Les Brown
True revolutionaries are like God—they create the world in their own image. Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Journalist, Essayist, Memoirist, Travel Writer
You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood. However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it.
—Ken Keyes Jr. (1921–95) American Personal Growth Author
My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Freedom is a package deal—with it comes responsibilities and consequences.
—Unknown
It is tempting at one level to believe that bad things happen to people (especially other people) because God is a righteous judge who gives them exactly what they deserve. By believing that we keep the world orderly and understandable…. But [this belief] has a number of serious limitations…. It teaches people to blame themselves. It creates guilt when there is no basis for guilt. And most disturbing of all, it does not even fit the facts.
—Harold Kushner (b.1935) American Jewish Religious Leader, Priest
Rich people…take responsibility for the results in their lives and act upon the mind-set “It will work because I’ll make it work”.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
In dreams begin responsibilities.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.
—Jonas Salk (1914–95) American Biologist, Physician, Medical Researcher
Each of us has the right and the responsibility to asses the road which lie ahead and those over which we have traveled, and if the feature road looms ominous or unpromising, and the road back uninviting-inviting, then we need to gather our resolve and carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that one as well.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
Everything proceeds as if of its own accord, and this can all too easily tempt us to relax and let things take their course without troubling over details. Such indifference is the root of all evil.
—I Ching Ancient Chinese Divination Text
We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
I saw that we’re all doing the best we can. This is how a lifetime of humility begins.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice — that is, until we have stopped saying “It got lost,” and say, “I lost it.”
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
The most important thought I ever had was that of my individual responsibility to God.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is up to us.
—Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) British Historian
Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity.
—M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American Psychiatrist, Author