Quotes, quotations and Passages on Responsibility

You must create your own world.
I am responsible for my world.

Louise Nelson

Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. . . No matter how much women prefer to lean, to be protected and supported, nor how much men desire to have them do so, they must make the voyage of life alone, and for safety in an emergency must know the law of navigation. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Becoming responsible adults is no longer a matter of whether children hang up their pajamas or put dirty towels in the hamper, but whether they care about themselves and others--and whether they see everyday chores as related to how we treat this planet. Eda Leshan

People who become conscious of the responsibility they bear toward a human being who affectionately waits for them, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away their lives. They know the "why" for their existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how." Victor Frankl Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained. Helen Keller

Each of us has a responsibility for being alive: one responsibility to creation, of which we are a part, another to the creator a debt we repay by trying to extend our areas of comprehension. Maya Angelou

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Winston Churchill

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Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries
or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a
particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for
example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner
peace, we can be at peace with those around us.

The Dalai Lama

I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst
from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the
inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do
happen; how I respond to them defines my character.

Walter Anderson

For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed;
the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does
not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born,
and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses
they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other,
and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other,
the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

James Baldwin

Few things help individuals more than to place responsibility upon them, and to let them know that you trust them.

Booker T. Washington

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

Eleanor Roosevelt

If people concentrated on their responsibilities, others would have their rights.

Stuart Briscoe

Responsibility is the thing people dread most of all. Yet it is
the one thing in the world that develops us,
gives us manhood or womanhood fiber.

Frank Crane

If you want children to keep their feet on the ground,
put some responsibility on their shoulders.

Abigail Van Buren

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life
is the source from which self-respect springs.

Joan Didion

I believe that every right implies a responsibility;
every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

I don't see the point of being a human being if you're not going
to be responsible to your fellow human beings. Selfishness
thefts away the human and reduces you to just a being.

Candea Core-Starke

Self-respecting men and women think about the consequences
of their actions--and are willing to take responsibility for them.

Nathaniel Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day

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The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide
your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother,
the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.

Albert Ellis

You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood.
However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it.

Ken Keyes, Jr.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past,
but by the responsibility for our future.

George Bernard Shaw

Articles and book excerpts on responsibility:

Taking Charge by Taking Responsibility      Dan Millman
Emotional Response Primer      Louise Morganti Kaelin
The Key Attitude for Success      Asoka Selvarajah
The Person I Devote Myself to Be      tom walsh

To be responsible has nothing to do with others. And yet it is deeply engraved into
your minds that you are responsible for others and that others are responsible for
you. It is the major factor operating in your relationships. You are responsible for
others. You have to fulfill their expectations. You are guilty if you fail. You are to
blame. It's your fault. You suffer from guilt, blame, resentment and the heavy
burden of responsibility as a direct result of accepting responsibility for others.
All you have to do is declare yourself not responsible for others and these feelings
are dissolved immediately. Then why will you not do it? Because you cannot declare
yourself free of responsibility for others without declaring others
free of responsibility for you.

Leonard Jacobson

People need responsibility. They resist assuming it,
but they cannot get along without it.

John Steinbeck

Duties are what make life most worth living.
Lacking them, you are not necessary to anyone.

Marlene Dietrich

We are not put here on earth to fool around. There is work to be done.
There are responsibilities to be met. Humanity needs
the abilities of every man and woman.

Alden Palmer

People can live tremendously rich, blissful, ecstatic lives.
But the first thing is, we have to accept our responsibility.

Osho
Discourses

What we say and what we do ultimately come back to us, so
let us own our responsibility, place it in our hands,
and carry it with dignity and strength.

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua

I reject non-being. My purpose is to be. And if I am to be,
I must begin by assuming responsibility.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power.

J.G. Holland

Taking responsibility nurtures self-confidence, and self-confidence can
help you to be a more interesting and attractive person. And best of all,
the more you believe in yourself, the more power you possess to attract
your good. . . . Those who speak constantly of their right to freedom must
understand that an irresponsible act does not bring greater freedom but
only greater bondage to the action. One law of life says, "If we are to enjoy
freedom, we must accept responsibility."
A great awareness is expressed in this statement.

John Marks Templeton
Worldwide Laws of Life

Taking on responsibilities that properly belong to someone else means
behaving irresponsibly toward yourself. You need to know where you
end and someone else begins. You need to understand boundaries.
You need to know what is and is not up to you, what is and is
not in your control, what is and is not your responsibility.

Nathaniel Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day

In order to become responsible, it is imperative we take a close
look at the effect our thoughts and beliefs have on our lives.

Susan Smith Jones

I have found that when it comes to people who haven’t been responsible
in their life, it isn’t that they’re this way because they’re not doing the kind
of work they love or whatever; it is because that’s what they have learned
to do. That’s what they have adopted as a lifestyle. They walk out on their
bills, and they do it whether they are 14 or 30. They’re broke when they
retire. They blame life and circumstances and a bad break and all the things
that so many folks blame for the conditions of their lives. On the other hand,
people who have been responsible stay that way, no matter what.

Wayne Dyer
Happiness Is the Way