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Quotes about responsibility

87 quotes from 73 people

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We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1950
- Life & Death
When a man’s partner is killed he’s supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you’re supposed to do something about it.
Dashiell Hammett1894–1961The Maltese Falcon (1930), Chapter 20In context
- Friendship
- Justice
None of us can be held responsible for the wrongs of our ancestors. But if today we choose not to do the right and necessary thing, that burden we own.
Nikole Hannah-Jonesborn 1976The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story (2021)
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)
We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it as an unchangeable fact and thus helped to perpetuate it.
Václav Havel1936–2011New Year’s Address to the Nation (1990)
- Government
See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.
Homer900–800 BCThe Odyssey (8th century BC), Book IIn context
- God
Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them; power to the man who knows how.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915“J.B. Runs Things,” Short Stories and Index: Elbert Hubbard’s Selected Writings, Part 14 (1923), p. 278
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
Henrik Ibsen1828–1906An Enemy of the People (1882), Act I, spoken by BillingIn context
- Leadership
The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country, than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.
Andrew Jackson1767–1845To troops who had abandoned their lines during the Battle of New Orleans (8 January 1815).
- Courage
For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Jesus7 BC–AD 30The Gospel of Luke (1611), Luke 12:48 (KJV)In context
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.
MKMichael Kordaborn 1933Success! (1977)
- Success
The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
John Lennon1940–1980Interview for KFRC RKO Radio (8 December 1980)
- History
Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Lincoln’s Second Annual Message to Congress (1862)
- History
Change is the immediate responsibility of each of us, wherever and however we are standing, in whatever arena we choose.
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), “Learning from the 60s”
- Change
When the history of our times is written, will we be remembered as the generation that turned our backs in a moment of global crisis or will it be recorded that we did the right thing?
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Nelson Mandela on Aids, 46664 Concert, Tromso, Norway (11 Jun 2005)
- History