Quotes About Accountability

If you brought harm, no matter the reason, you had to set it right as best you could.

The cannon of the spirits says that intent is guilt. Failure to successfully carryout the intent does not absolve the guilt. ~ Cara Mordsith

While it was understandable to be afraid, and no one would expect you not to be, the worst thing you could do was to run from the trouble you had caused. No matter how accidental it was, you didn't try to deny it. You didn't run. You did what you must to right it.

it's easier to feel shame if those guilty are centuries dead, especially when such discrediting, by default, confers upon yourself a higher moral standard without having to stand the test in the true environment of the time.

there is no devil, jack said. we are the devil. the devil is us.

A Seeker is a person who answers to no one but himself; he is a law unto himself. The Sword of Truth is his to wield as he wishes, and within the limits of his own strength, he can hold anyone to answer for anything.

Don't lay a cloak of guilt around my shoulders because others are evil.

An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!

Even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility.

It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.

The phrase 'Someone ought to do something' was not, by itself, a helpful one. People who used it never added the rider 'and that someone is me'.

And no practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences. Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the others are based.

If Not You, Who Else?

Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses.

You couldn't say 'I had orders.' You couldn't say 'It's not fair.' No one was listening. There were no Words. You owned yourself. [...] Not 'Thou Shalt Not'. Say 'I Will Not'.

You did what you were told or you didn't get paid, and if things went wrong it wasn't your problem. It was the fault of whatever idiot has accepted this message for sending in the first place. No one cared about you, and everyone at headquarters was an idiot. It wasn't your fault, no one listened to you. Headquarters had even started an Employee of the Month scheme to show how much they cared. That was how much they didn't care.

He sighed. It had come to this. He was a responsible authority, and people could use terms like core values at him with impunity.

You couldn't say: It's not my fault. You couldn't say: It's not my responsibility. You could say: I will deal with this. You didn't have to want to. But you had to do it.

Little crimes breed big crimes. You smile at little crimes and then big crimes blow your head off.

a man needs no camel to ride to hell, yea, nor horse, nor mule; a man may ride into hell on his tongue...

I let you sleep, Sam, said Lady Sybil. You didn't get in this morning until after three. Everyone's double-shifting, dear, said Sam, daring Carrot and Sally to even think about telling anyone they'd seen the boss wearing a blue shawl covered in ducks. I've got to set a good example. I'm sure you intend to, Sam, but you look like a horrible warning, said Sybil.

or there will be a reckoning!

Roland de Chumsfanleigh (it wasn't his fault).