We forget that we ourselves are a part of history, that we are the product of growth and are condemned to perish if we lose the capacity for further growth and change. We are ourselves history and share the responsibility for world history and our position in it. But we gravely lack awareness of this responsibility.
—Herman Hesse
It is up to us; there is no one left to blame. Neither the system, nor our leaders, nor our parents. We can't go out and hang the first amoeba.
—Rebecca McClen Novick
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice—that is, until we have stopped saying "It got lost," and say, "I lost it."
—Sydney J. Harris
I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.
—George W. Bush
The price of greatness is responsibility.
—Winston Churchill
You alone are responsible for what you do, don't do, or how you respond to what's done to you.
—Darren Hardy in The Compound Effect
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
—Abraham Lincoln
One can pass on responsibility, but not the discretion that goes with it.
—Benvenuto Cellini
Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
—G. M. Trevelyan
If you don't accept responsibility for your own actions, then you are forever chained to a position of defense.
—Holly Lisle
There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction. The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, the responsibility lies with you.
—J. K. Rowling
In every child who is born under no matter what circumstances and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again, and in him, too, once more, and each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life: toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terrorism, and of God.
—James Agee
The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves.
—Oscar Arias Sanchez
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
—Henry David Thoreau
In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
—Friedrich Nietzsche