Quotes About Accountability

If a man's public record be a clear one, if he has kept his pledges before the world, I do not inquire what his private life may have been.

Enlightenment demands that you take responsibility for your way of life.

I understand that I have become a liability to the very institutions and policies to which I have dedicated my career and, indeed, my entire adult life.

It's interesting, on your second day of existence, to realize that your father is going to blame all the future failures of his life on you.

People have choices in this life. They should exercise them responsibly.

I study the bible regularly, meet with older wiser mentors weekly, and keep a group of guys in my life who challenge me spiritually. That keeps me moving.

You can't have a country or a city or a state that's worth a damn unluss you govern within yourself in your day-to-day life.

Take custody of your life. Show up, do your best, and let go of the rest.

A politician who enters public life may as well face the fact that the best way of not being found out is not to do anything which, if found out, will cause his ruin.

You're responsible for yourself. You messed up your life, and it's up to you to fix it. No one else is going to do it for you -- for any of you.

He that in the latter part of his life too strictly inquires what he has done, can very seldom receive from his own heart such an account as will give him satisfaction.

Let our lives be open books for all to study.

Sri Krishna says whatever role we have in life, we have to play it to the hilt. We have to take it all the way. We have to assume responsibility for our role. To run away from it causes misery.

I think we ought to let him [Patrick Gray] hang there. Let him twist slowly, slowly in the wind.

doing less harm is no longer enough

The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nations greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.

Webster wrote, that "an individual forming part of a public force, and acting under the authority of his Government, is not to be held answerable" for acts authorized by his sovereign.

Sometimes in life, you make a mistake and there's no buts and no explanations … There's no peace in 'I'm sorry, but.' You can't find peace until you truly understand that the only thing to say is, 'I'm sorry,' period. ~ John Lucas, as quoted in 'The Punch' by John Feinstein

He's the reason I have so few rules on my team. He told me not to make any rules because that way if a bad kid screws up you get rid of him. If a good kid screws up you do what you have to do and let it go at that. Rules just get you in trouble.

Journalists and the people they cover shouldn't be friends.

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

Our task is not to fix the blame for the past, but to fix the course for the future.

When at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us-recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state-our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions-were we truly men of courage ... were we truly men of judgment ... were we truly men of integrity ... were we truly men of dedication