Quotes About Accountability

So know yourselves first," she finished. "Then look back and account.

was a team player only until he was handed the ball. And then he simply had to run with it. The sort of man who could not hand it off, as he ought to, the sort of man who would risk the game to score a point. The wrong sort.

What would you think of a postmistress who chose not to deliver the mail?" I asked.

In the United States, serious and damaging public corruption is not getting punished. That means, by default, that we deem it to be just fine.

For example, executives and HR departments should not offer the vice president of Enron a string of government jobs in the public-private international development and infrastructure industries after his company's debacle.

A ratchet-up would be to expel violators like him from powerful jobs they currently hold if the wrongdoing continues or their contracts come up for renewal. The next notch would be to take their freedom—that is, to investigate, prosecute, and send them to jail. That option terrifies the dominator coalition. Why else would it have worked so hard for thirty years to eliminate it?

As a child I liked to piss on the carpet. The carpet rotted and I blamed it on the dog.

I thought you were trying to prove to the board you're responsible?' 'I'll use a condom. Does that count?

The problem with being a family was that every member was affected by the actions of an individual.

Resolution doesn't mean that everyone is happy, but it does mean that perhaps fewer people are being blamed for pain they have not caused, or being cast as the receptacle of other people's anxieties, so that fewer people are dehumanized by false accusation.

As my mother says, your forties are when you finally pay for your past mistakes, the cigarettes and sunburns, the Big Macs and smooth-talking men. She may be right.

I thought maybe I could just get away from everything. But you can't get away from a thing that's your own fault.

Immediately, I wanted to gather up everything I'd just said and stuff it back into my mouth. But once you've said stuff, you can't unsay it. Your words are out there, aren't they? Buzzing around in the quiet of the room so you can hear them echoing back at you...

We are not here concerned with people who profess the democratic faith but yearn for the dark security of dependency where they can be spared the burden of decisions. Reluctant to grow up, or incapable of doing so, they want to remain children and be cared for by others. Those who can, should be encouraged to grow; for the others, the fault lies not in the system but in themselves.

Thus the greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself. From

there are two people living inside of me.. most conveniently, as I can always put the blame on someone else

Many in our day climb under the moral shade of Matthew 7:1 to take the supposed high road in saying, "I'm not the judge." Those who take this supposed high road may be missing the whole point of Jesus' words: sin is sin, and one cannot follow Jesus and turn a blind eye to sin. What Jesus is calling us to here is not the absence of moral discernment.

The job isn't done until you've blamed someone for the parts that went wrong.

Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results.

I]t isn't the considered judgments of hindsight, but actions actually taken that show the true character of a person.

You can blame people who knock things over in the dark, or you can begin to light candles. You're only at fault if you know about the problem and choose to do nothing.

Taking responsibility, even for failures, is always a growth opportunity.

Taking responsibility for situations, regardless of who caused them, always helps to expedite resolving

When people are allowed to fail or make mistakes without taking responsibility for them, politics are inevitable. Without accountability for people's commitments, few will trust others.