Wise Words
Responsibility/Duty
“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you, never excuse yourself.”
Henry Ward Beecher, (1813–1887), American clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, & speaker
“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.”
Les Brown, American speaker, author, & television personality
“Responsibility is the price of greatness.”
Winston Churchill, (1874–1965), British politician, statesman, & orator
“Do your duty, and leave the rest to heaven.”
Pierre Corneille, (1606–1684), French dramatist
“The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.”
Joan Didion, American author
“To live without duties is obscene.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803–1882), American essayist, philosopher, & poet
“This is your duty, to act well the part that is given to you.”
Epictetus, (c. 55–c. 135), Greek philosopher
“Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power.”
Josiah Gilbert Holland, (1819 - 1881), American novelist & poet
“For, stripped of the temporary associations which gave rise to it, it is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., (1841–1935), American jurist
“The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country, than a coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.”
Andrew Jackson, (1767–1845), 7th President of the US
“No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility.”
Gerald W. Johnson, (1890–1980), American journalist, editor, essayist, historian, & novelist
“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
John F. Kennedy, (1917–1963), 35th President of the US
“Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility. In the final analysis, the only quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.”
Michael Korda, British-American novelist & editor
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
Stanislaw J. Lec, (1909–1966), Polish poet
“Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things … You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.”
Robert E. Lee, (1807–1870), US Army officer, engineer, & college president
“The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty.”
Abraham Lincoln, (1809–1865), 16th President of the US
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Abraham Lincoln, (1809–1865), 16th President of the US
“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
Martin Niemöller, (1892–1984), German anti-Nazi theologian & Lutheran pastor
“The average American is just like the child in the family. You give him some responsibility and he is going to amount to something. He is going to do something. If, on the other hand, you make him completely dependent and pamper him and cater to him too much, you are going to make him soft, spoiled and eventually a very weak individual.”
Richard Nixon, (1913–1994), 37th President of the US
“One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it’s remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license.”
P.J. O’Rourke, American political satirist, journalist, & writer
“A wrongdoer is often a man who has left some thing undone, not always one who has done some thing.”
Ptolemy, (90 – 168), Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer, & astrologer
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”
Ronald Reagan, (1911–2004), 40th President of the US
“I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession, a duty.”
John D. Rockefeller, (1839–1937), American industrialist & philanthropist
“It’s not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, (1884–1962), wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the US
“The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight.”
Theodore Roosevelt, (1858–1919), 26th President of the US
“Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will—his personal responsibility.”
Albert Schweitzer, (1875–1965), German-French theologian, musician, philosopher, & physician
“Nothing strengthens the judgement and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, (1815–1902), American abolitionist & early feminist
“Nothing happens by itself. It all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.”
Ben Stein, American actor, writer, political/economic commentator, & attorney
“As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is up to us.”
Arnold J. Toynbee, (1889–1975), British historian
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