Quotes about responsibility
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“A sense of responsibility would spoil her. She's too pretty.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

“You don't have to be 'adults'… but be someone who can take responsibility for their own words and actions. Believe it or not, that's actually harder.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 8

“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

Past, Future

“Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each others welfare, social justice can never be attained.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

People, Justice, Sense

“The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.”

Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) Social psychologist

Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (1974), ch. 1: The Dilemma of Obedience
Obedience to Authority : An Experimental View (1974)

Sense

“She wants you to be a god," I told him.
"I know." His face twisted with embarrassment, and in spite of itself my heart lightened. It was such a boyish response. And so human. Parents, everywhere.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

God, Parent, Heart

“I believe in me, in my view of the world. I believe in my responsibility for my own destiny, guilt for my own sins, merit for my own good deeds, determination of my own life. I don't believe in miracles, I believe in hard work.”

Philippa Gregory (1954) English novelist

Life, World

“If you do not know what you feel, then it is difficult to choose love; it is better to fall. Then you do not have to be responsible for your actions.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Love, Feeling

“If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”

Les Brown (1945) American politician

Hunger, Dreams

“Wold domination is exhausting and cliche. People ought to just focus on being individual responsible citizens of the earth instead of assholes.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

People

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.”

Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic

International Herald Tribune (21 February 1990)

World, Heart

“When someone tells you something big, it's like you're taking money from them, and there's no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening.”

Banana Yoshimoto book The Lake

Source: The Lake

Money, Way

“Men sometimes have to leave their ladies alone, and ladies are not responsible for the bad manners of fools.”

Charlaine Harris book Club Dead

Source: Club Dead

Men, Fools

“The last introvert in a world of extroverts. Silence: my response to both emptiness and saturation. But silence frightens people. I had to learn how to talk. Out of politeness.”

Ariel Gore (1970) American writer

Source: Atlas of the Human Heart

People, World, Silence, Learning

“We have a responsibility to stand watch over one another, we are watchers, all of us, watchers, guarding against the darkness.”

Dean Koontz book Watchers

Part 2, Chapter 9.2; Nora to an ill and unresponsive Einstein at the veterinary clinic
Watchers (1987)
Context: I thought of you as my guardian, Einstein… you taught me that I'm your guardian, too, that I'm Travis's guardian, and he is my guardian and yours. We have a responsibility to stand watch over one another, we are watchers, all of us, watchers, guarding against the darkness. You've taught me that we're all needed, even those who sometimes think we're worthless, plain, and dull.

“To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.”

Colette (1873–1954) 1873-1954 French novelist: wrote Gigi

Paris From My Window (1944)

Silence

“Survivors have responsibilities.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948) American writer

“If I was getting harder, it was in response to the world around me.”

Charlaine Harris Dead and Gone

Source: Dead and Gone

World

“He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.”

Michael Pollan (1955) American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism

Source: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

“Next you will cry about taxation without representation, and throw a basket of tea into the harbor. You are indeed a very Jacobin at heart, and I think I must give up trying to cure you of it; I can but wash my hands and deny responsibility”

Naomi Novik book His Majesty's Dragon

Source: His Majesty's Dragon

Thinking, Heart, Tea, Cry

“But when they kissed goodnight in bed, Therese felt their sudden release, that leap of response in both of them, as if their bodies were of some materials which put together inevitably created desire.”

Patricia Highsmith book The Price of Salt

Source: The Price of Salt

Kiss

“Our responsibility begins with our imagination.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Imagination

“In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.”

Robert McKee (1941) American academic specialised in seminars for screenwriters

Source: Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

World, Art

“There's a responsibility in being a person. It's more than just taking up space where air would be.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Personality

“Some people have a thick skin and you don't. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this world.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair

Pain, People, World, Heart

“This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Life, Waiting

“If I cling to circumstances I could feel
not responsible. Only she who says
she did not choose, is the loser in the end.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Feeling

“Life always gets harder towards the summit - the cold increases, responsibility increases”

Barbara Taylor Bradford A Woman of Substance

Source: A Woman of Substance

Life

“Violence is never the answer but sometimes, like with cockroaches, it is the only possible response.”

Tanya Huff (1957) Canadian fantasy author

“I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Interview published with the Biograph album set (1985)

Understanding, Thinking, Freedom

“One of the nastier trends in library management in recent years is the notion that libraries should be 'responsive to their patrons'.”

Connie Willis (1945) American science fiction writer

“In Japanese and Italian, the response to ["How are you?"] is "I'm fine, and you?" In German it's answered with a sigh and a slight pause, followed by "Not so good.”

David Sedaris book Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Source: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

“Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball.”

Billie Jean King (1943) American tennis player

Life, Decision, Time

“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

“we're responsible for our own lives.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“A spontaneous proposition deserves a spontaneous response.""
""You gave me a spontaneous response when you said no.”

Jeri Smith-Ready

Requiem for the Devil

“Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Failure, Optimism

“If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit (1994)

“I don’t think Will Herondale and a sense of responsibility are even on speaking terms”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Thinking, Sense

“No person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone. There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Source: Sources

Personality

“Life is a gift and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Life, Relationship

“Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

Men, Thinking

“Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

Change

“I didn't realize you needed a response. When Hamlet is giving a monologue, he just goes on and on by himself.”

Eloisa James (1962) American academic

Source: When Beauty Tamed the Beast

“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it.”

William L. Shirer book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Source: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Error, Failure

“The snowflake never needs to feel responsible for the avalanche.”

Jon Ronson book So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Source: So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Feeling

“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

Variant: What he did not know then is that it is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
Source: VALIS (1981)

Reality

“I find it a huge strain to be responsible for my tastes and be known and defined by them.”

Jonathan Franzen book Strong Motion

Source: Strong Motion

“You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Truth, Exercises, Thinking

“I feel a sense of responsibility," said Jordan.
"And where is this feeling located? In your pants, perhaps?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Feeling, Sense

“The essence in obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as an instrument for carrying out another person's wishes and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions.”

Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) Social psychologist

Source: Obedience to Authority

Personality

“Fresh is better. But you've never drunk fresh blood. Have you?"
Simon raised his eyebrow in response.
"Well, aside from mine of course," Jace said. "And I'm pretty sure my blood is fan-tastic.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Variant: But you've never drunk fresh blood. Have you?"
Simon raised his eyebrows in response.
"Well, aside from mine, of course," Jace said. "And I'm sure my blood is fan-
Source: City of Glass