Quotes About Responsibility

I think honesty and love help to create the safety that children need to just be children. If we want them to "fix" us, to cure us, to make us better, then we are not being honest with ourselves; we know that children can't heal us or heal our relationships with others. That is beyond their capabilities, and it is certainly not their responsibility.

If we feel guilty about some aspect of our sexuality, I hope we can understand where that's coming from within ourselves and take responsibility for it. But feeling guilty is not taking responsibility; that comes with understanding the true origins of our guilt. And when that happens, it makes sexuality less burdensome for our children. It may not heal the scars and might not undo the damage, but it will certainly open some doors in their lives.

If crimes are committed they must be seen as a disease, and punishment as treatment rather than as social vengeance.

Foundation regrets sound like this: If only I'd done the work.

Moral regrets sound like this: If only I'd done the right thing.

Management isn't about walking around and seeing if people are in their offices

autonomy over four aspects of work: what people do, when they do it, how they do it, and whom they do it with. As Atlassian's experience shows, Type I behavior emerges when people have autonomy over the four T's: their task, their time, their technique, and their team.

There's no going back. Pay your son to take out the trash—and you've pretty much guaranteed the kid will never do it again for free.

This era doesn't call for better management. It calls for a renaissance of self-direction.

Perhaps you're familiar with the First Law of Holes: "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." And perhaps you've ignored this law.

Results-only work environment (ROWE): The brainchild of two American consultants, a ROWE is a workplace in which employees don't have schedules. They don't have to be in the office at a certain time or any time. They just have to get their work done.

Many of our education, finance, and health regrets are actually different outward expressions of the same core regret: our failure to be responsible, conscientious, or prudent.

When we behave poorly, or compromise our belief in our own goodness, regret can build and then persist.

We're born to be players, not pawns.

While self-flagellation seems motivating—especially to Americans, whose mental models of motivation often begin with howling, red-faced, vein-popping football coaches—it often produces helplessness. Self-compassion, by contrast, prompts people to confront their difficulties head-on and take responsibility for them, researchers have found.

Whether you're fixing sinks, ringing up groceries, selling cars, or writing a lesson plan, you and I need autonomy just as deeply as a great painter. However, encouraging autonomy doesn't mean discouraging accountability. Whatever operating system is in place, people must be accountable for their work.

A life of obligation and no opportunity is crimped. A life of opportunity and no obligation is hollow. A life that fuses opportunity and obligation is true.

What's more, the regrets people expressed were less about renouncing the group than falling short of one's obligations to it.

Routine, not-so-interesting jobs require direction; nonroutine, more interesting work depends on self-direction.

He regrets not having "the experience of hardship and sacrifice," of depending on others for survival and of their relying on him. "If you're serving someone, it means you're not serving yourself

The buttons I usually push don't need my force, only my intention. Buttons are supposed to be servants, waiting to deliver your commands to the machine. Instead, this loud, dumb piece of steel I'm driving demands that I pay strict attention to every turn of the road, keep my hands and feet ready at all times. The car takes no responsibility for the job of driving. It leaves me in total control. I hate it. I don't want control. I just want to get there

Having these boys around town in feral packs is like leaving dynamite out in the sun-something mighty useful and powerful turned into an accident waiting to happen.

Presidents and generals and all the important people in position to make the most important decisions are, by and large, the least equipped for making them. —MICHAEL CRICHTON

In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls….Rather we are…instruments of His will, providing mansions for the souls that He creates. —ALAN TURING, 1950