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responsibility quotes

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“Every one has his superstitions. One of mine is that in positions of great responsibility every one should do his duty to the best of his ability where assigned by competent authority, without application or the use of influence to change his...” Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
“Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
“CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
“Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each one of us individually.” 14th Dalai Lama, Nobel Lecture
“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.” Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
“We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.” Pope Francis, Laudato si'
“Remember, you have been given absolute power to bind and to loose, but the greater the power, the more terrible its responsibility.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?” William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
“with freedom come responsibilities” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
“Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.” William Shakespeare, Richard III
“If it’s important, you have to do it yourself.” Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
“The consequences of every act are included in the act itself.” George Orwell, 1984
“And by that destiny to perform an act Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come In yours and my discharge.” William Shakespeare, The Tempest
“Only the mistakes have been mine.” Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
“In times like the present men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.” Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union Address
“It takes two to make an accident.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“That's Harris all over—so ready to take the burden of everything himself, and put it on the backs of other people.” Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
“A man with a bum knee really shouldn't have to carry the future of the world on his back. ” Stephen King, 11/22/63
“There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.” Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
“a man can but do his best.” Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
“I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well.” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“there are no free lunches in this life, and eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.” Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream
“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.” Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
“you're way off when you start railing at things and people instead of at yourself.” J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
“No animal has more liberty than the cat; but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist.” Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
“And so, my fellow Americans... ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
“He is energetic only in evading responsibility.” Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“In short, Beauty Smith was a monstrosity, and the blame of it lay elsewhere. He was not responsible. The clay of him had been so moulded in the making.” Jack London, White Fang
“Nothing is more usual than to feel that others have shared in our failures, just as it is an ordinary reaction to forget those who have shared in our achievements.” Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
“A sense of responsibility would spoil her. She's too pretty.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
“A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“Good government should maintain the balance where every individual may have a place if he will take it, where every individual may find safety if he wishes it, where every individual may attain such power as his ability permits, consistent with...” Franklin D. Roosevelt, Looking Forward
“If you expect people to be responsible for their children, you have to give them the right to choose whether or not to have children.” John Irving, The Cider House Rules
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger; I do not shrink from this responsibility... I welcome it.” John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings.” William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
“You know I'm old in some ways—in other—well, I'm just a little girl. I like sunshine and pretty things and cheerfulness—and I dread responsibility.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
“I can't explain MYSELF, I'm afraid, sir . . . because I'm not myself, you see.” Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
“Under love's heavy burden do I sink.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.” Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
“Nothing is easier than the expenditure of public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.” Calvin Coolidge, State of the Union Address

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authority freedom self justice duty guilt fault love death work time men power action past government age imagination politics money

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William Shakespeare (5)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (3)
John F. Kennedy (2)
Calvin Coolidge (1)
Nelson Mandela (2)
Abraham Lincoln (1)
George Orwell (1)
J. R. R. Tolkien (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Stephen King (1)
Neil Gaiman (1)
Malcolm X (1)
Isaac Asimov (1)
J. D. Salinger (1)
Ernest Hemingway (1)
Jack London (1)
Lewis Carroll (1)

Related sources

Long Walk to Freedom (2)
State of the Union Address (2)
Inaugural Address (2)
1984 (1)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
The Little Prince (1)
Kafka on the Shore (1)
Foundation (1)
This Side of Paradise (1)
The Tempest (1)
The Great Gatsby (1)
Julius Caesar (1)
The Beautiful and Damned (1)
Waiting for Godot (1)
Measure for Measure (1)
The Return of the King (1)
Franny and Zooey (1)