Quotes About Responsibility

The journalist and critic I. F. Stone would call the state of mind that permitted the Pearl Harbor attack "sheer stodgy unimaginative bureaucratic complacency.

When great men blunder, they count their losses in pride and reputation and glory. The underlings count their losses in blood. —Theodore C. Mason, Battleship Sailor (1982)

Burdens grew heavier the higher one ascended in rank. Captains concerned themselves with ships and crews, commodores with squadrons, task force commanders with objectives, and theater commanders with campaigns. The burdens of sailors weighed mostly on the muscles. The weight of leadership was subtler and heavier. It could test the conscience.

I didn't know that costs accrue. I didn't know that you always pay for what you suppress.

We have met the enemy and he is us."—Walt Kelly (Pogo)

The air, the water, and the ground are free gifts to man, and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink, breath, and walk - and therefore each has a right to his share of earth.

Tis an ancient and sacred tie that binds man to his nation; neither can it be severed without infamy.

People don't want to accept the responsibility for their own weakness, so they place the blame on something that they're not responsible for, like disease or genetics.

There is no Higher Power or any God who is responsible for what I do and for what I have done and for who I am. There is no Higher Power or any God who will cure me. There is no Meeting where any amount of whining, complaining and blaming is going to make me feel any better.

Whether they are accepted or not isn't important. What is important is the act of apologizing, the act of admitting fault, the act of asking for forgiveness.

This free use of the line for flirtation purposes has grown to an alarming extent," he wrote, "and if it is to go on somebody must pay for it." The Bell companies tried to discourage frivolous telephony, particularly by women and servants.

Uncertainty is not an indication of poor leadership; it underscores the need for leadership.

I think, along with the great joy and excitement of having a child, it seems to be that the common themes are also a lot of doubt and fear and uncertainty about being a parent - and about how you might not live up to those expectations.

At times of constitutional uncertainty and social division, parliament needs a greater, not a lesser role, in defining our future.

I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.

You don't raise taxes in times of such uncertainty.

Most of us feel some kind of uncertainty, with the population increasing and resources decreasing. We have to face these issues.

When faced with economic uncertainty, people don't want freedom. When they can't see their economic future, they want the nanny state.

If there is one thing worse for a manager than having an interfering owner it is uncertainty over the ownership.

I played a lot of roles in my mother's life. I was her driver when she wanted to go to places, her cook when she was unwell, but one role that remained unchanged is that of a friend.

There is nothing on earth so easy as to forget, if a person chooses to set about it. I'm sure I have as much forgot your poor, dear uncle, as if he had never existed; and I thought it my duty to do so.

Maybe it's because my uncle and my parents were always very involved with the civil rights movement, so I just grew up and I was raised that you have to speak out and look out for your fellow man, woman, and child.

I never want to be a father figure to my quarterbacks. I've got my own kids. I want to be the cool uncle you'd like have a drink with.

My grand uncle was a traditional priest, and he would always say to me as a kid, 'We stand in our own light,' which essentially for him meant we were entirely responsible for a lot of what happens to us and for the ways in which our lives play out.