Quotes About Responsibility

The bigger a man is, the more people he serves," said the Prophet. "A small man serves himself. Bigger is to serve your family. Bigger is to serve your tribe. Then your people. Biggest of all, to serve all men, and all lands.

At first it was the man of real authority they noticed, but later, where everyone had authority, it was his cargo they cared to see.

I carry the seeds of death within me and plant them wherever I linger long enough to love. My parents died so others could live; now I live, so others must die.

They also knew that Ender trusted them to do as they judged best when he gave them no orders.

From now on, as far as you're concerned, Dink Meeker is God.' 'Then who are you?' 'The personnel officer who hired God.

Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you.

If there's a problem, you fix it. You don't set up fences around it and make rules about how it should be fixed. You fix it.

You can't leave [the children] to God when God has left them to us. - Sister Carlotta

Since I don't have actual authority over anybody, Petra, how can it possibly matter if I'm not legitimately authorized?

Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.

In that deep place she knew that it was all her fault, that evil arose out of the dark shadows of her heart and seeped into the world poisoning everything. She carried the beast inside her heart, the devourer of happiness... No, no, it's not true, she said silently...God does not want my death, not by my own hand, never by my own hand...It wouldn't help anyone. Wouldn't help, would only hurt. Wouldn't help, would only...

If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault.

But my eagerness to sacrifice little children in order to save mankind is wearing thin.

Ender Wiggin must believe that no matter what happens, no adult will ever, ever step in to help him in any way. He must believe, to the core of his soul, that he can only do what he and the other children work out for themselves. If he does not believe that, then he will never reach the peak of his abilities.

No system works well unless good people do their jobs with integrity, and then almost any system works well enough.

Now she understood that someone had to end the council by declaring specifically what had been decided and what must happen next. Without absolute clarity, people would go off and dither, especially if they had doubts about the decision.

When you don't understand the consequences of your acts, how can you be blamed for them? ... You don't take the blame, he answered. But you still take responsibility. For healing the wounds you caused.

The PCs were willing, but the powers that be didn't want to commit troops.

What the world is seeing is that the savior of the world has a little problem – he kills children.

My job isn't to be friends. My job is to produce the best soldiers in the world. In the whole history of the world. We need a Napoleon. An Alexander. Except that Napoleon lost in the end, and Alexander flamed out and died young. We need a Julius Caesar, except that he made himself dictator, and died for it. My job is to produce such a creature, and all the men and women he'll need to help him. Nowhere in that does it say I have to make friends with children.

They came for gossip, and he gives them responsibility.

Pero la naturaleza de los subordinados era usar el poder de manera intrépida, ya que la culpa siempre podía achacarse tanto a los de abajo como a los de arriba.

are more to a woman than any man can be. We pretend otherwise. We pretend we bear them for him, that we raise them for him. But it's not true. We raise them for themselves. We stay with our men for the children's sake.

The leader only has as much power as his followers give him.