Personal Responsibility Quotes

"Perhaps you are overvaluing what you don’t have and undervaluing what you do."

"[I]n a free society each individual has a responsibility towards the beliefs of his society—a responsibility on which all the rights and duties of citizenship are founded."

"You have absolute control over but one thing, and that is your thoughts. This is the most significant and inspiring of all facts known to man! It reflects man's Divine nature. This Divine prerogative is the sole means by which you may control your own destiny. If you fail to control your own mind, you may be sure you will control nothing else. p. 173"

"The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls — the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning. "Slavery in Massachusetts" (1854)"

"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons."

"Most people want everyone else in the world to change but themselves."

"The manager is a servant. His master is the institution he manages and his first responsibility must therefore be to it. p. 343"

"Building alibis with which to explain away failure is a national pastime. The habit is as old as the human race, and is fatal to success! Why do people cling to their pet alibis? The answer is obvious. They defend their alibis because THEY CREATE them! A man's alibi is the child of his own imagination. It is human nature to defend one's own brain-child. p. 173"

"“If you learn life’s lessons, you will do well. If not, life will just continue to push you around. People do two things. Some just let life push them around. Others get angry and push back. But they push back against their boss, or their job, or their husband or wife. They do not know it’s life that’s pushing.”"

"Pick up the heaviest thing you can lift and carry it."

"It does not matter whether the worker wants responsibility or not, ...The enterprise must demand it of him. p. 304"

"We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment. Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to build your own life to order. p. 54"

"If you cannot understand why someone did something, look at the consequences—and infer the motivation."

"Today we know that a free society is not the product of nature, but of man; that it is not self-maintaining and self-winding, but demands the vigilant and constant support of responsible citizens... freedom is not inevitable and easy... but the product of a long, hard struggle of man's reason and man's faith that has to be fought over and won again by every generation."

"You cannot be protected from the things that frighten you and hurt you, but if you identify with the part of your being that is responsible for transformation, then you are always the equal or more than the equal of the things that frighten you."

"Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated."

"If you are not disciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions."

"To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open."

"Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today."

"You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction."

"Confront the chaos of being."

"Voluntary confrontation with what you are afraid of is curative."

"Discipline is the precondition for freedom."

"If you want to be successful, you have to be useful."

"It is in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It is not in happiness. It is not in impulsive pleasure."

"Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping."

"Tell the truth — or, at least, don't lie."

"Stop saying things that make you weak."

"Adopt as much responsibility as you can to justify your existence."

"The secret to your existence is right in front of you, and it manifests itself as all those things you know you should do but you're avoiding."

"Strengthen the individual. Start with yourself. Care for yourself. Define who you are. Refine your personality."

"Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)."

"The way that you make the world better is by making yourself better."