Quotes About Responsibility

Generally, Madame, the failing of a student to learn is the failing of the teacher to teach.

Welcome to parenting. It's not a job, it's an adventure.

What was the right thing for a mother to say to her nearly grown daughter about the ugliness in the world? How could she be honest?

Instead, Loreda saw hobos gathered around the train depot, wearing rags, their back pockets turned inside out in what were being called Hoover flags. A shoe with holes was a Hoover shoe. Everyone knew who to blame for the Depression but not how to fix it.

Sometimes you simply made the wrong choice and you had to live with it.

damage the earth is to damage your children. —WENDELL BERRY, FARMER AND POET

I don't know the right thing to do anymore. I want to protect Sophie and keep her safe, but what good is safety if she has to grow up in a world where people disappear without a trace because they pray to a different God?

pockets than takin' care of the farmworkers.

Bad choices. That was all there were anymore.

People down south had no idea how clean an outhouse could be if you took care of it.

She knew now that no one could be neutral—not anymore—and as afraid as she was of risking Sophie's life, she was suddenly more afraid of letting her daughter grow up in a world where good people did nothing to stop evil, where a good woman could turn her back on a friend in need.

She had made a terrible, grievous mistake. She couldn't take it back, however much she might hope for such a chance; she couldn't undo it, but a good woman would accept responsibility—and blame—and apologize. Whatever else she was or wasn't, whatever her failings, she intended to be a good woman.

probably never said I love you to another human being . . . How could Kate have said that? And then not called to apologize . . . or to say hello . . . or even to wish her a happy birthday?

I'm afraid," she said. "Of course you are. You're a mother. Fear is the job description.

Generally, Madame, the failing of a student to learn is the failing of the teacher to teach." Breaths

And they were ashamed to need anything from the government. From anyone, really. Like her, they'd always worked for what they needed, not relied on the government for a handout.

Ah. Consequences," Madame said. "Perhaps now you will see that they should be considered.

Was Vianne really supposed to let Sophie starve to prove her loyalty to France?

I guess our government believes children can raise themselves.

But this new emotion…this feeling in the pit of his stomach that he'd been a bad person, that he'd hurt his brother deeply and known it and never bothered to make it right…

we are only responsible for the things we do—or fail to do—ourselves.

Humans had a responsibility to do more than just protect themselves. In the face of evil, they were compelled to save each other.

France may have turned her back. But did that mean that Eva could do the same when lives hung in the balance?

I mean that I would rather die knowing I tried to do the right thing than live knowing I had turned my back. Do you understand?