Quotes about blame
page 3

“We go to the past to lay the blame - since the past can't argue. We go to our past selves to account for our present miseries.”

Glen Duncan (1965) British writer

Source: Love Remains

Past

“Only the weak blame their past for the faults they find in their present; the strong acknowledge the effects of their past and then move on from it. We are all free to choose whether we will be weak or strong.”

Penny Jordan (1946–2011) British women's author

Source: The Italian Duke's Virgin Mistress

Strong, Past

“You can't blame a match for a house made of straw”

Scott Westerfeld book Goliath

Source: Goliath

Housing

“You’re the one who unleashed him. (Savitar)
Yeah, well, let’s move on from the blame game. I was having suicidal thoughts and it seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect, not so much. (Stryker)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: One Silent Night

Game, Idea, Suicide, Time

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;!”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Source: If: A Father's Advice to His Son

Men

“All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, it will not change you.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Change, Time

“…History is written by the rich, and so the poor get blamed for everything.”

Jeffrey D. Sachs (1954) American economist

"Good Reads" w:Good Reads, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6440.Jeffrey_D_Sachs

History

“Dearest Cecilia, You’d be forgiven for thinking me mad, the way I acted this afternoon. The truth is I feel rather light headed and foolish in your presence, Cee, and I don’t think I can blame the heat.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Truth, Way, Feeling, Thinking

“The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.”

Holly Black book Red Glove

Source: Red Glove

People, Truth

“I enjoyed the innocence of unhappiness and of helplessness; could I blame myself for a sin which attracted me, which flooded me with pleasure precisely to the extent it brought me to despair?”

Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French intellectual and literary figure

Source: My Mother/Madame Edwarda/The Dead Man

Pleasure, Despair

“What you're blaming yourself for is being who you are. And that's no one's fault and nothing you can change.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Change

“I think about how people use the devil as an alias for the things they fear. The cause and effect is backward. The devil doesn't make anyone do anything. People just do things and blame the devil after.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

People, Fear, Thinking

“Are you getting your period?" She narrows her eyes.
No! God. I hate that. I hate when every negative act is blamed on your period." Sometimes bitchiness is just bitchiness, happily unattached to anything hormonal. It should get full credit.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Nature of Jade

God, Hate

“Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Pain, Feeling, Perfection

“I always thought when I got older that God would sort of come into my life in some way. He didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I'd have the same opinion about me that he does.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men

Life, God, Way

“Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past — let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Remarks at "Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland (18 February 1958) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx; Box 899, Senate Speech Files, John F. Kennedy Papers, Pre-Presidential Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library <br class="br">Pre-1960

Past, Future, Despair

“Complaining of unfairness is like assigning blame, Percy Jackson. It does no one any good.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“You can't blame anyone else,…, no one but yourself. You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

“Blame unto others only as you would first blame yourself.”

T.D. Jakes (1957) American bishop

“There’s no accountability anymore, Pierce, no one holds anyone accountable for what they do. It’s always someone else’s fault. Usually people just blame the victim.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Abandon

People

“Neither blame or praise yourself.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

“When in doubt about who's to blame. Blame the English.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

“Rationally speaking, blaming one's behavior on alcohol or drugs is like blaming the ladder by which you descended into a pit, or the staircase that took you down to a cellar, for what you found there.”

Graham Joyce book Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Source: Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Alcohol, Behavior

“How can you blame a person for his fears and weaknesses unless you have felt the same and done differently?”

Amy Tan The Kitchen God's Wife

Source: The Kitchen God's Wife

Fear, Personality

“You'll never get ahead by blaming your problems on other people.”

Willie Nelson (1933) American country music singer-songwriter.

Source: The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart

People, Problem

“I blame Hollywood for skewing perspectives. Life is just a big romantic comedy to them, and if you meet cute, happily ever-after is a forgone conclusion.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Life

“You can’t blame me,” Ascanio said. “Anybody in my place would be concerned. You don’t even have a proper horse. You’re riding a mutant equine of unknown origin.”
“Don’t disrespect my donkey”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Horse

“Teachers were both blamed for everything that went wrong with kids and turned to for their every salvation. This dual role of scapegoat and savior was downright messianic but even Jesus was probably paid better.”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Teachers

“In general, people only ask for advice that they may not follow it; or, if they should follow it, that they may have somebody to blame for having given it.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Three Musketeers

Variant: As a general rule... people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.
Source: The Three Musketeers

People

“I blame my dad for my sweet tooth. His motto was 'Life is short; eat dessert first.' How can I argue with that?”

Wendy Mass Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Source: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Life

“When something horrible happens, it's human nature to want to blame it on someone. We want someone to be held accountable, even though sometimes things just happen.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Abandon

Nature

“People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.”

George Bernard Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession

Vivie, Act II
Source: 1890s, Mrs. Warren's Profession (1893)

People, World

“Those miserable women who blame the men who let them down for their misery and isolation enact every day the initial mistake of sacrificing their personal responsibility for themselves.”

Germaine Greer book The Female Eunuch

Source: The Female Eunuch

Women, Men, Personality

“Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

God, Pain, Way

“Someone had to be blamed. Someone had to die. (…) What you can't understand, you destroy.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Understanding

“After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?”

Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day

Source: The Remains of the Day

“The job isn't done until you've blamed someone for the parts that went wrong.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Source: Dilbert's Guide to the Rest of Your Life: Dispatches from Cubicleland

Parting

“And the best and the worst of this is
That neither is most to blame,
If you have forgotten my kisses
And I have forgotten your name.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

An Interlude.
Undated

Kiss

“Be your own worst critic.
When things go wrong it's tempting to shift the blame. Don't.
Accept responsibility. People will appreciate it, and you will find out what you're capable of.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

People

“Just as your hand has the power to hide the sun, mediocrity has the power to hide your inner light. Do not blame others for your own incompetence.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Warrior of the Light

Light, Sun

“You cannot blame porn. When I was young, I used to masturbate to Gilligan's Island.”

Ron Jeremy (1953) Prolific American pornographic actor

“I knew there was never anyone to blame when people get into drugs. They're always responsible for their own behavior, and it's not the dealer, and it's not the friend, it's not the childhood.”

Anthony Kiedis book Scar Tissue

Source: Scar Tissue, 2004

People, Behavior, Childhood

“You have a conscience, and a conscience is a valuable attribute, but not if it begins to make you think you were to blame for what is far beyond the scope of your responsibility.”

Philip Roth book Nemesis

Source: Nemesis

Thinking

“You can't keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once, and move on."

Homer Simpson”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

“All my life they had made choices for me, and I had resented it. Now the choice was mine, and once it was made, I would have no right to blame anyone else for the consequences. Loss of that privilege, to blame others, unexpectedly stung.”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Source: A Conspiracy of Kings

Life, Loss

“I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame”

Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) British-American actress

Love, Hate, Drawing

“Any damage that's been done, you have to fix yourself because it needs fixing and there is nobody else to do the work. Blame may well be justified, but it's not going to move you forward in your life.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

Life

“You don't blame us for being here, do you? After all, we have no place to go. No home… Incidentally, what an excellent day for an exorcism…”

William Peter Blatty book The Exorcist

Source: The Exorcist

Home

“Laila: Tell your secrets to the wind but don't blame it for telling the trees.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

Secret, Tree

“You wanted happiness, I can’t blame you for that, and maybe a mouth sounds idiotic when it blathers on about joy but tell me you love this, tell me you’re not miserable.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Love, Happiness, Joy

“Until we learn to love others as ourselves, it's difficult to blame broken people who desperately try to affirm themselves when no one else will.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Love, People, Learning

“Why should we think upon things that are lovely Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Love, Life, Soul, Thinking

“It just makes me wonder what subject you blame for talking to me every night.'
I'm still settling on an answer for that one. Probably Chemistry.
Jesus Christ. I can't believe I just wrote that.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Sloppy Firsts

Christ, Night

“He looks at you like you're someone he's never met before, much less someone he once loved with high passion. The irony is, you can hardly blame him. I mean, check yourself out. You're a pathetic mess, unrecognizable even to your own eyes.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, Passion

“To grow up is to stop putting blame on parents”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Source: Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female

Parent

“I'll tell you something,' she said. 'I'm not sure I ever really liked him.'

Adam?' I said. 'I don't blame you.' 'Not Adam,' she said, struggling to swallow a greedily chomped chunk. 'God.”

Glen Duncan book I, Lucifer

Source: I, Lucifer

God

“It is your own bad strategies, not the unfair opponent, that are to blame for your failures. You are responsible for the good and bad in your life.”

Robert Greene The 33 Strategies of War

Source: The 33 Strategies of War

Life, Failure

“I was still searching for someone to blame for my suffering. I really wanted someone to transfer my hate to, so that I could stop hating myself.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

Source: The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life

Hate, Search, Suffering

“Dear Anyone Who Finds This, Do not blame the drugs.”

Lynda Barry (1956) Cartoonist

Source: Cruddy

“I can't blame her. but
wonder why she's here with
me? where are the other
guys? how can you be
lucky? having someone the
others have abandoned?”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Guy

“Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.”

Anita Brookner book Hotel du Lac

Source: Hotel du Lac

Women, Thinking

“We are each the authors of our own lives, Emma. We live in what we have created. There is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades.”

Barbara Taylor Bradford A Woman of Substance

Source: A Woman of Substance

Way

“But that was Isabelle — if there was a boy around and blame that needed to be pinned on someone, Isabelle would pin it on him”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Boy

“Whether or not you believe in Fate comes down to one thing: who do you blame when something goes wrong.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Fate

“It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

“Freak is easily spooked. Flesh-eating monsters tend to scare him away. So do fireworks, clowns, and the smell of Sadie's weird British Ribena drink. (Can't blame him on that last one. Sadie grew up in London and developed some pretty strange tastes.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Sobek

Source: The Son of Sobek

Drink

“How about we give each other everything we can and not blame each other for what we can’t.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

“If you trade your authenticity for safety, you may experience the following: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, rage, blame, resentment, and inexplicable grief.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Rage

“As someone very sagely said during the parricide trials of the Menendez Brothers: anytime your kids kill you, you are at least partly to blame.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

“No one blames her."
"That never matters," said Alec. "Not when you blame yourself.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“it's impossible to remain angry or blame other people for problems in your life when you are saying, "I am responsible”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Source: Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life

Life, People, Problem

“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 (1913–2007) American psychologist

Life, Problem, Deep, Success

“Zeus needed someone to blame, so of course he’d picked the handsomest, most talented, most popular god in the pantheon: me.”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

God

“It's a choice, Annabel. And if you make the wrong one, you have only yourself to blame when there are consequences.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“can't blame a man for being human when human is all he'll ever be!”

Eric Jerome Dickey (1961) American author

Source: Liar's Game

“Tis not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess.”

John Selden (1584–1654) English jurist and scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution, and of Jewish law

Humility.
Table Talk (1689)

Drink

“You're breaking your mind
By killing the time that kills you
But you can't blame the time
When its only in your mind”

Jack Johnson (musician) (1975) American musician

Sexy Plexi.
Song lyrics, Brushfire Fairytales (2001)

Time

“Don't blame me, Pongo,' said Lord Ickenham, 'if Lady Constance takes her lorgnette to you. God bless my soul, though, you can't compare the lorgnettes of to-day with the ones I used to know as a boy. I remember walking one day in Grosvenor Square with my aunt Brenda and her pug dog Jabberwocky, and a policeman came up and said the latter ought to be wearing a muzzle. My aunt made no verbal reply. She merely whipped her lorgnette from its holster and looked at the man, who gave one choking gasp and fell back against the railings, without a mark on him but with an awful look of horror in his staring eyes, as if he had seen some dreadful sight. A doctor was sent for, and they managed to bring him round, but he was never the same again. He had to leave the Force, and eventually drifted into the grocery business. And that is how Sir Thomas Lipton got his start.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Uncle Fred in the Springtime

Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)

God, Dogs, Soul, Boy

“In blaming others, fools their folly show,
And most attempt to speak when least they know.”

John Hoole (1727–1803) British translator

Book XXVIII, line 7
Translations, Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Fools

““You can hardly blame them.”
“Assuming stupidity is an inherited trait, then no, I can’t.””

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 3 (p. 67).

Stupidity

“A very bold political measure of Lycurgus is his redistribution of the land. For there was a dreadful inequality in this regard, the city was heavily burdened with indigent and helpless people, and wealth was wholly concentrated in the hands of a few. Determined, therefore, to banish insolence and envy and crime and luxury, and those yet more deep-seated and afflictive diseases of the state, poverty and wealth, he persuaded his fellow-citizens to make one parcel of all their territory and divide it up anew, and to live with one another on a basis of entire uniformity and equality in the means of subsistence, seeking preëminence through virtue alone, assured that there was no other difference or inequality between man and man than that which was established by blame for base actions and praise for good ones.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Lycurgus, sec. 8. The bolded phrase is often quoted in a paraphrase by Ugo Foscolo: "Wealth and poverty are the oldest and most deadly ailments of all republics" (Le ricchezze e la povertà sono le più antiche e mortali infermità delle repubbliche), Monitore Italiano, 5 February 1798.
Parallel Lives

People, Disease, Affliction, Envy

“[Hillary Clinton] was trying to encourage us to become more active in politics and she said, 'If you leave all the decision-making to others, you might not like what they do, and you will have no one but yourself to blame.' It was such a challenge to the women in the room. And it really hit me: She’s talking to me.”

Kirsten Gillibrand (1966) United States Senator from New York

Describing Hillary Clinton's influence on Gillibrand's entering politics

Women, Decision

“I don't suppose any first-class work in science is done now outside of the war work … Of course … science has fallen into discredit. It has brought no solution to our human problems, and has added greatly to our engines of destruction in this war. Not that science is to blame for this misuse, but people judge by results, and by that standard science has a heavy account to liquidate. Science so far has had far too much to do with the things of sense and of matter, and the things of the spirit have been by-passed.”

Jan Smuts (1870–1950) military leader, politician and statesman from South Africa

As quoted by W. K. Hancock in SMUTS 2: The Fields of Force 1919-1950, p. 395

War, People, Problem, Sense

“On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.”
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Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (The Ends of Good and Evil), Book I, section 33; Translation by H. Rackham (1914)

Men, Pain, Pleasure, Business

“Maurice Joly: Your honor, I have not written a lampoon here…this book’s delineations are applicable to all governments!
Prosecutor: No, your honor.. this man has written a tract that barely conceals a horrid defamation of our emperor!!
Maurice Joly: No! No! No! This book provides a call to conscience…a perspective for citizens concerned about the harsh realities of the conditions in which they live…
Furthermore, my book shows how the despotism taught by Machiavelli in “The Prince” could, by artifice and evil ways, impose itself on our society.
Prosecutor: No, your honor. It does more than that… for by ‘’’using’’’ the despotism of Machiavelli’’’ asa comparison, Joly seeks to show that Bonaparte, our sovereign, and an evil Italian are ‘’’the same’’’ in thought and deed!
Maurice Joly: If the reader sees a relationship to the infamy of the emperor, am I to blame?
Judge: Maurice Joly, I charge you with the crime of defamation! Of suggesting through shameful means that our sovereign has led the public astray, degraded our nation and corrupted our morals! This is an infamy, sir!!
Judge: Therefore, Maurice Joly, this court sentences you to 15 months imprisonment.
Maurice Joly: This is unfair and an example of this despotic society under Louis Bonaparte!
Balif: Quiet! You’ve had your say!
Judge: The emperor’s police will immediately confiscate all copies of this book they can find!”

Will Eisner (1917–2005) American cartoonist

Source: The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (10/2/2005), pp.16-19

Books, Way, Reality, Evil

“My greatest satisfaction comes from helping to erase the old opinion about Latin American and black ballplayers. People had the wrong opinion. They never questioned our ability but they considered us inferior in our station of life. Simply because many of us were poor, we were thought to be low class. Even our integrity was questioned. I don't blame the fans for that; I blame the writers. They made it look like we were something different entirely from the white players. We're not. We're the same.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Sports Parade"
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Life, People, Question, Help

“The idea of trying to cast blame on President Clinton is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don't think he deserves it.”

Rudy Giuliani (1944–2001) American businessperson and politician, former mayor of New York City

On responsibility for failure to prevent the September 11 attacks (27 September 2006) "Giuliani Defends Clinton on 9/11 Efforts" CBS News (28 September 2006) http://web.archive.org/web/20070214071844/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/28/ap/politics/mainD8KDHAM00.shtml

Idea, Thinking

“We're to blame for the "bad blood." Not Putin. The real meaning of America First is Blame America First.”

William Kristol (1952) American writer

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/984074345571127296 (11 April 2018) <br class="br">2010s, 2018

“What about the people that couldn't get out?! Someday it's gonna happen to you, Chertoff! … You won't have a car, and you won't have a government airplane, and you won't have a cell phone, and you won't have a weapon! … Blaming the victim… You filthy pig! You filthy, good-for-nothing Bush Crime Family member! … Oh, these people just make me furious!”

Mike Malloy (1942) American radio broadcaster

http://server7.whiterosesociety.org/content/malloy/MalloyShow-(06-09-2005).mp3
reacting to Michael Chertoff talking about people that couldn't leave New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.
On Hurricane Katrina

People, Family, Cars

“All the mystery and wisdom of the Masters, when it’s out in the daylight, doesn’t amount to so much, you know. Tricks of the trade—wonderful illusions. But people don’t want to know that. They want the illusions, the mysteries. Who can blame them? There’s so little in life that’s beautiful or worthy.”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

“Dragonfly” (p. 199)
Earthsea Books, Tales from Earthsea (2001)

Life, Wisdom, People, Beauty

“I marvelled how this Servant might meekly suffer there all this woe, and I beheld with carefulness to learn if I could perceive in him any fault, or if the Lord should assign to him any blame. And in sooth there was none seen: for only his goodwill and his great desire was cause of his falling; and he was unlothful, and as good inwardly as when he stood afore his Lord, ready to do his will. And right thus continually his loving Lord full tenderly beholdeth him.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

Summations, Chapter 51

Love, Suffering, Learning

“I'm not in any way trying to pass blame to any other person. There are reasons why I did what I did, but I'm still the one who did it, and the responsibility, no matter the reasons, is still mine.”

Sean Sellers (1969–1999) American murderer

The Confession of My Crimes

Way, Personality

“The most destructive habit [to relationships] is criticizing; next comes blaming, but any of the habits are more than capable of disconnecting you from a person you want to be close with.”

William Glasser (1925–2013) American psychiatrist

Source: Unhappy Teenagers A Way for Parents and Teachers to Reach Them (2002), p.14

Personality

“All our talents increase in the using, and every faculty, both good and bad, strengthens by exercise: therefore, if you choose to use the bad, or those which tend to evil, till they become your masters, and neglect the good till they dwindle away, you have only yourself to blame.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXIII : First weeks of Matrimony; Helen to Arthur

Exercises, Evil

“One of the topics [on the show last week] was the murder of women in the Arab sector, what is referred to, unfortunately, […] as 'honor killing' and has nothing to do with [anything worthy of] honor. The guest in the studio was a woman who had 20 years of experience working for the sake of those same women who die for no good reason, a woman whose everyday job was a holy work for the sake of thousands of Arab women who need a voice that will shout out and cry out their cries. After she had accused the government and the police and everyone of incompetence, I asked her, in a somewhat aggressive manner, as it were, '[…] Where are we in all of this? Where are we Arab women to teach and discipline our sons that a man has no right over a woman? […]' During the commercial break, she got up and told me that I had to learn how to talk to Arabs because the tone that I adopted and the things that I said were said to gain approval from Jews. So I've come to tell you today that I haven't come for approval from you; that I haven't come for approval from anyone; and this is the message that I want you to digest very, very well. In my life I have been accused of many things: that I am the fifth column; that an Arab will always stay an Arab, no matter how liberal he may look; that I bring shame on my family for being in a relationship with a person outside my religion. I've received threats after asking Palestinian residents live on the show why they don't go out against Hamas men, who use them and bring them to their slaughter; I've been attacked on Yom ha-Shoah and Yom ha-Zikaron that the managers at Arutz 2 dared to put an Arab on a show such as that as the host on a day such as that; I've been told that I make Arab women stray off the path of proper behavior; and that I've forgotten where I come from being an 'Ashkenazified', 'Judaized' Arab. So they blamed and they talked—as if that, in itself, made them right.”

Lucy Aharish (1981) Arab-Israeli journalist

Source: Lucy Aharish's campus speech http://www.onlife.co.il/%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%95%D7%93%D7%94/%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%94%D7%99%D7%92%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%97%D7%A8/85312/%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%A9-%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%91%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%90-%D7%97%D7%9F-%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%A3-%D7%90%D7%97%D7%93 at "מנהיגות היום את המחר". Onlife. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2015. Video available.

Life, Women, Men, Family

“Oh, I'm not entirely without blame! It was a mistake to have chosen Lon Nol as my right-hand man, my chief of staff, my prime minister, without ever suspecting that he was a traitor in league with the CIA. I thought he was a patriot… Who would have thought the Americans would use him? After all, he was a complete idiot! He never understood a damn thing, always staring at me with those bovine eyes of his, and spending all his time praying.”

Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012) Cambodian King

Said during his exile in Peking, as quoted by Oriana Fallaci (June 1973), Intervista con la Storia (sixth edition, 2011). pages 112-113.
Interviews

Time

“Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is working to destroy it.”

Jean-François Revel (1924–2006) French writer and philosopher

Cited in The Effects of Mass Immigration On Canadian Living Standards and Society (2009). ed. Grubel, The Frasier Institute, pp. 202-203 ISBN 088975246X, 9780889752467
1980s, How Democracies Perish (1983)

History

“The important thing in my view is not to pin the blame for a mistake on somebody, but rather to find out what caused the mistake.”

Akio Morita (1921–1999) Japanese businessman

Source: Made in Japan (1986), p. 149.

“Hayek says that the problem with classical liberalism was that it was not pure enough. The government needed to restrict itself to establishing the rule of law and to using antitrust to break up monopolies. It was the overreach of the government beyond those limits, via central banking and social democracy, that caused all the trouble. A democratic government needs to limit itself to rule of law and antitrust–and perhaps soup kitchens and shelters. And what if democracy turns out not to produce a government that limits itself to those activities? Then, Hayek says, so much the worse for democracy. A Pinochet is then called for to, in a Lykourgan moment, minimalize the state. After social democracy has been leveled and the rubble cleared away, then–perhaps–a limited range of issues can be discussed and debated by a–limited–restored democracy, with some kind of group of right-wing army officers descended from latifundistas Council of Guardians in the background to ensure that property remains sacred and protected, and the government small enough to fit in a bathtub. […] Hayek was formed in Austria. From his perspective the property and enterprise respecting Imperial Habsburg government of Franz Josef eager to make no waves, to hold what it has, and to keep the lid off the pressure cooker appears not unattractive. This is especially so when you contrasted would be really existing authoritarian alternatives: anti-Semitic populist demagogue mayors of Vienna; nationalist Serbian or Croatian politicians interested in maintaining popular legitimacy by waging class war or ethnic war; separatists who seek independence and then one man, one vote, one time. An “authoritarian” after the manner of Franz Josef looks quite attractive in this context–and if you convince yourself but they are as dedicated to small government neoliberalism as you are, and that the Lykourgan moment of the form will be followed by soft rule and popular assent, so much the better. And if the popular assent is not forthcoming? Then Hayek can blame the socialists, and say it is their fault for not understanding how good a deal they are offered.”

J. Bradford DeLong (1960) American economist

Making Sense of Friedrich A. von Hayek: Focus/The Honest Broker for the Week of August 9, 2014 http://equitablegrowth.org/making-sense-friedrich-von-hayek-focusthe-honest-broker-week-august-9-2014/ (2014)

War, Law, Democracy, Understanding

“We learn in the past, but we are not the result of that. We suffered in the past, loved in the past, cried and laughed in the past, but that’s of no use to the present. The present has its challenges, its good and bad side. We can neither blame nor be grateful to the past for what is happening now. Each new experience of love has nothing whatsoever to do with past experiences. It’s always new.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Love, Suffering, Learning, Past

Quotes about blame page 3

Quotes about blame
page 3