Quotes About Accountability

In retrospect, though many were guilty, none was innocent.

It is always tempting when you have political discontent in your own country to say it is the fault of some other country and not of your own government.

The most effective way to revive a functional democracy is to do what we have always done; transfer decision-making from the unaccountable institutions: monarchs, priestly castes, military juntas, political or economic dictatorships, or modern corporations, and bring it back to the public arena.

To decide, to be at the level of choice, is to take responsibility for your life and to be in control of your life.

Lorsqu'on ne peut attaquer le message, on attaque le messager.

That was a people that hath passed away. They shall reap the fruit of what they did, and ye of what ye do! Of their merits there is no question in your case.

New maps were made, complete maps, so that every inch was accounted for, and everyone now knew who they were, or at least who they belonged to. Those maps, how they transformed everything.

Democracy is not simply a license to indulge individual whims and proclivities. It is also holding oneself accountable to some reasonable degree for the conditions of peace and chaos that impact the lives of those who inhabit one's beloved extended community.

The story of the American Civil War is essentially one of human beings––Northerners, Southerners, Blacks, Whites, men, women–– holding themselves accountable for the future of a nation.

A people may let a king fall, yet still remain a people, but if a king let his people slip from him, he is no longer a king.

The eyes of our rulers have been closed, and a lethargy has seized almost every member. I fear a fatal security has taken possession of them. Whilst the building is in flames, they tremble at the expense of water to quench it.

We have too many high sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them.

But let no person say what they would or would not do, since we are not judges for ourselves until circumstances call us to act.

But when it gets dark, I'm off the hook. The day is officially rolled up and put away. I'm free to watch movies or stare at the wall, no longer holding myself accountable for what I might or might not have gotten done because the time for getting something done is over until tomorrow.

If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.

Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. -Speech at Clinton, Illinois, September 8, 1854.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Every man over forty is responsible for his face.

If there ever could be a proper time for mere catch arguments, that time surely is not now. In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.

Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny. From "Cutting for Stone

Sooner or later, she must sit down to the meal of consequences

The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not." p 533

The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not." -Cutting for Stone