Quotes about Responsibility

Freedom is a state of mind that each of us must discover for ourselves. In so doing, we will find that there is nothing that anyone in authority can do to make our world more peaceful orderly, or free. There are no institutional reforms, or ideologies, or more fashionable gurus to save us: such thinking only continues our sense of irresponsibility.

Because we are self-controlling beings, we are also responsible for our actions. This is not a moral or ethical proposition, but simply a causal one: I am responsible for what I do because I am the one who controls my actions. By the same token, to the degree we seek to control the lives and property of others, we help to foster, in their minds, the illusions that they are not responsible for what they do.

If it is our desire to live as free men and women, we must abandon our habits of looking outside ourselves for answers. It is to our own minds, our own fears, to which we must have resort. To be "free" is to live without division, and yet the state – as well as other proclaimed authorities – insist that we obey their mandates. To the extent that we must choose between pursuing our own interests and obeying others, we are internally divided into conflicting purposes.

How do we end such divisive thinking other than by confronting, and ending, the contradictory thinking that has produced it? Can we understand that trying to overthrow the state, or to reform it, or to select less-demanding leaders, will not end the thinking that has produced it? Neither is the answer to be found in science fiction or utopian/dystopian novels, in which efforts are made to deal with freedom in the setting of imaginary worlds, thus relieving the reader of the responsibility of doing so in reality.

It is the existential depths of our own beings that we need to explore if we are to discover the meaning of freedom. When we are prepared to do so, we will begin to discover some important truths about ourselves, one of the most important being that we are, by nature, self-controlling beings. I, alone, can energize my will and my body on behalf of purposes to which I must choose to act. The fact that political systems must resort to violence – and the threat of violence – to persuade us to obey their directives, is the clearest evidence that neither they, nor anyone else, can control our actions.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.

Placing the blame or judgment on someone else leaves you powerless to change your experience. Taking responsibility for your beliefs and judgments gives you the power to change them.

You become responsible forever for what you've tamed. 

Responsibility to self simply means to acknowledge inner truth—our imperfections and our power, our beauty.

The human species was too fond of lying, cheating, envy, ignorance, self-pity, self-righteousness, and utopian visions that always led to mass murder--but until and if it destroyed itself, it harbored the potential to become nobler, to take responsibility for its actions, to live and let live, and to earn the stewardship of the earth.

There is a place for each individual in the world, but you must seek and find where your place is and where you fit in. If you are afraid to take the responsibility of bringing in the new, do not try to stop those souls who are willing to do it. Realise that those souls who have been trained and inspired to undertake this task will do so, for it is their work. Find your rightful place in the whole vast plan, and if you are not in the front line do not let it disturb you. Remember, all sorts of people are needed to make up the whole. Simply accept your specific work and do what you know you have to do wholeheartedly, and allow those souls who have been placed in the position of leadership and responsibility to go ahead. Give them your full backing and complete loyalty; they need it and appreciate it. Lift up your heart in deep love praise and gratitude for them, and always give of your very best.

Mr. President: On a clear cold
morning I address you from a remote
margin of your dominion in plain-
style Yankee quatrains because

I don’t know your exalted language
of power. I’m thankful for that. This
is a complaint and petition, sent
to you in the long-held right I claim

As a citizen. To recapitulate your
wrong-doings is unnecessary; the topic
is large and prominent and already
occupies the attention of historians

and political scholars, whose findings
will in the near future expose your
incontinent and maniacal ambition
for all to see. Let it suffice to

say that you have warped the law and
flouted the will and wisdom of the
people as no other has before you.
You have behaved precisely as a tin-pot

tyrant in any benighted, inglorious
corner of the earth. And now you are
deviously and corruptly manipulating
events in order to create war.

Let us speak plainly. You wish to
murder millions, as you yourself
have said, to appease your fury. We
oppose such an agenda — we, the people,

artists, artisans, builders, makers,
honest American men and women,
especially the poets, for whom I dare
to speak. We say, desist, resign,

hide yourself in your own shame,
lest otherwise the evil you have
loosed will destroy everything
and love will quit the world.

Imagine that the whole world belongs to you.  The birch trees in New Hampshire's White Mountains are yours, and so are the cirrus clouds in the western sky at dusk and the black sand on the beaches of Hawaii's big island.  You own everything, my dear sovereign - the paintings in all the museums of the world, as well as the internet and the wild horses and the roads.

Please take good care of it all, OK?  Be an enlightened monarch who treats your domain with reverent responsibility.  And make sure you also enjoy the full measure of fun that comes with such mastery.  Glide through life as if all of creation is yearning to honor and entertain you.

AUTONOMOUS NURTURING.  Not waiting for someone to give you what you can give yourself.

In the New World, you'll kick your own ass and I'll wash my own brain.  I'll be my own parents and you'll be you own wife.  And vise versa.  That'll be normal in the New World - different from the Old World, where everyone except me is to blame for my ignorance and you call on everyone except yourself to give you what you need.

I’ll push my own buttons and right my own wrongs.  You'll wake yourself up and sing your won songs.

Claim the events of your life! When you posses all you have been and done, you are fierce with reality.

I was thinking of my patients, and how the worst moment for them was when they discovered they were masters of their own fate. It was not a matter of bad or good luck. When they could no longer blame fate, they were in despair.

Every man should be his own guru; every woman her own gurette.

Grown men do not need leaders.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

I am responsible for what I see.
I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.
I could see peace instead of THIS.
The past is over - it can touch me not.
This instant is the only time there is.
Today I will judge nothing that occurs.
I am not the victim of the world I see.
I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.
I am determined to see things differently.
I am never upset for the reason I think.
Forgiveness is the key to happiness.

All that I give I give to myself.

"Character is much eaiser kept than recovered".

I love a challenge and saving the Planet seems like a good one.

I really need people to take responsibility for the kind of energy they bring to me.

"To have integrity one must be consistently honest and trustworthy in everything one does...When you have integrity, people know you will do what you know is right...Its knowing what you have to do without someone telling you to do it. It is the core of a person's-and a company's- reputation."

        what is my purpose in life, what is my responsibility?
        whether I like it or not, I am on this planet
        and it is far better to do something for humanity.

        so you see that compassion is the seed or basis.

       If we take care to foster compassion,
       we will see that it brings the other good human qualities.

       the topic of compassion is not at all religious business;
       it is very important to know that it is human business
       that it is a question of human survival
       that is not a question of human luxury....

       It is clear that even without religion we can manage.

       However, without these basic human qualities we cannot survive.
       It is a question of our own peace and mental stability.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words;
it is expressed in the choices one makes.
In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves.
The process never ends until we die.
And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

My father always would say, "My daughter will go into politics? My daughter will become prime minister", but it's not what I wanted to do. I would say, "No, Papa, I will never go into politics." As I've said before, this is not the life I chose; it chose me ... But I accepted the responsibility and I've never wavered in my commitment.

The institution of the democratic State is a remarkable example of modern idolatry. By ritually celebrating elections that are played out like a great social mass, the State allows us to participate in a religion that will influence the idol in our favour. If we make the idol an offering of the right ballot, it will bring us security, lifetime employment, a guaranteed pension, free medical care, environmental protection and a good school for our children. All these favours will rain down on us. We will not have to do anything to earn them. What could be more magical than that belief?

Liberty (individual freedom) is the prize, responsibility the price.