You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading¹ it today.

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man.

Alan Paton (1903 - 1988)

One can pass on responsibility, but not the discretion² that goes with it.

Benvenuto Cellini (1500 - 1571)

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

Bob Dylan (1941 - )

The perfect bureaucrat³ everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility.

Brooks⁴ Atkinson (1894 - 1984), Once Around the Sun, 1951

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous⁵ with destiny.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945)

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

G. M. Trevelyan (1876 - 1962)

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread⁶ it.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims⁷ for Revolutionists"

If you don't accept responsibility for your own actions, then you are forever chained to a position of defense⁸.

Holly⁹ Lisle, Fire In The Mist, 1992

So many new ideas are at first strange and horrible, though ultimately valuable that a very heavy responsibility rests upon those who would prevent their dissemination¹⁰.

J. B. S. Haldane (1892 - 1964)

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering¹¹ you in the wrong direction. The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, the responsibility lies with you.

J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Address, 2008

In every child who is born under no matter what circumstances and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again, and in him, too, once more, and each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life: toward the utmost idea of goodness, of the horror of terrorism, and of God.

James Agee (1909 - 1955), Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.

Joan Didion (1934 - ), "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

John D. Rockefeller (1839 - 1937), Personal credo

Taking responsibility gives us power and control, because when we recognize the relationship between our choices and their consequences, then the next time we don’t like a consequence we can make a different choice.

Julie A., M.A. Ross and Judy Corcoran, Joint¹² Custody¹³ with a Jerk: Raising a Child with an Uncooperative Ex, 2011

The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves.

Oscar Arias¹⁴ Sanchez (1941 - )

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable¹⁵ that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)