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Quotes about responsibility

87 quotes from 73 people

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A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer.
Seneca the Younger5 BC–AD 65Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXVII: Some arguments in favor of the simple life, Line 30
Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a public duty.
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885Endorsement of a letter relating to the Whiskey Ring (29 July 1875)
- Justice
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Julius Caesar (1599), Act I, scene ii.In context
Freedom and power bring responsibility.
Jawaharlal Nehru1889–1964A Tryst With Destiny (1947)
- Freedom
Rights presuppose duties, if they are not to become mere licence.
Pope Benedict XVI1927–2022Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009)
No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
Edward R. Murrow1908–1965CBS television broadcast, on See It Now (7 March 1954)
- Fear
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Act III
- Clever Jabs
It is the duty of every man, so far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.
Thomas Paine1737–1809The Theophilanthropist: Containing Critical, Moral, Theological and Literary Essays, in Monthly Numbers, p. 387
- Truth & Lies
For myself, I want no advantage over my fellow man, and if he is weaker than I, all the more is it my duty to help him.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926The Negro and His Nemesis (1904)
- Charity
The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919Speech before the Colorado Live Stock Association, Denver, Colorado (August 29, 1910); in The New Nationalism (1910), p. 52
- Nature
In archery we have something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself.
Confucius551–479 BCThe Doctrine of the Mean
- Failure
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.
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lamaborn 1935Nobel lecture (1989)
Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before — consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves.
George Eliot1819–1880Adam Bede (1859)
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.
Herbert Spencer1820–1903Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative (1891), Vol. 3, Ch. IX, State-Tamperings with Money and Banks
- Intelligence
The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.
Václav Havel1936–2011International Herald Tribune (21 February 1990)