Quotes About Responsibility

The meaning of yes is created by the ability to say no.

Hold to virtue—if you can identify it—and trust that the duty set before you is the duty desired of you. And that the talents given to you are the talents you should place in the gods' service. Believe that the gods ask for nothing back that they have not first lent to you. Not even your life.

Successes are secret and thankless, failures are splashy and gain you only blame.

And whose fault was it that the boy swallowed down lies, when no one would feed him the truth?

If only you were willing to betray a trust, why, the most amazing range of possible actions opened up to you.

Some men just aren't cut for paternity. Better they should realize it before and not after they become responsible for a son.

She considered the familiar conundrum inherent in complimenting a child for doing something well in the course of what ought not to have been done at all, and kept her peace.

Something I did not know at twenty," said Nikys slowly, "that I do know at thirty, is that when a woman marries a man, she marries his life. And it had better be the life she wants to lead.

Never," said Kareen with passion, "ever suggest they don't have to pay you. What they pay for, they'll value. What they get for free, they'll take for granted

Guards, Miles now realized, had to stay in prison all day long too. Indeed, as a guard, one of his jobs was now to keep himself in.

At some stage of development an officer had to stop following orders and start generating them.

The world is made by the people who show up for the job

My word was too easy to give, too hard to keep.

inside every senior tech officer was a junior tech officer who'd been on a short leash for a long time.

I expect you'll be wading for the rest of your life," Illyan answered seriously. "But every Komarran who follows you will have less crap to deal with, because of you.

The gods have no hands in this world but ours.  If we fail Them, where then can They turn?

Well, he's his god's problem now. Don't promote your troubles beyond your rank." "That is actually theologically sound advice.

Save me from that! To pour your life into sons for eighteen or twenty years, and then have the government take them away and waste them cleaning up after some failure of politics—no thanks.

Don't promote your troubles beyond your rank.

Everybody has it wrong way round. Parents don't make children—children make parents. They shape our behavior from the first wail. Mold us into what they need. It can be a pretty rough process, too.

Elena's eye lit with a skewed enthusiasm. "Dear God, Miles. Metzov—Oser—Ungari—all in a row—you sure are hard on your commanding officers. What are you going to do when the time comes to let them all out?" Miles shook his head mutely. "I don't know.

Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you'll be so close as to be living inside each other's skins. So . . . is this Ekaterin another passing fancy?" The Count hesitated, his eyes crinkling. "Or is she the one who will love my son forever and fiercely—hold his household and estates with integrity—stand beside him through danger, and dearth, and death—and guide my grandchildren's hands when they light my funeral offering?

She opened her mouth once to speak, closed it, then finally ripped out, "Why aren't you on your way home? I gave you an order, Lieutenant!" Stuben, anticipating a warmer reception, was momentarily nonplussed. "We took a vote," he said simply, as though it explained everything. Cordelia

Miles looked up at his father. "Did I do the right thing, sir? Last night?" "Yes," said the Count simply. "A right thing. Perhaps not the best of all possible right things. Three days from now you may think of a cleverer tactic, but you were the man on the ground at the time. I try not to second-guess my field commanders." Miles's heart rose in his aching chest for the first time since he'd left Kyril Island. He nodded, satisfied.