Quotes about Accountability

Sometimes men are still boys, only wearing bigger clothes, until God takes them by the suspenders and gives them a good shake.

I wear the chain I forged in life....I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.

We forge the chains we wear in life.

The plain rule is, to do nothing in the dark, to be party to nothing under-handed or mysterious, and never to put his foot down where he cannot see ground.

we have done wrong, and are reaping the fruits of wrong.

if you deserve it, and repent in action—not in words. I want no more words.

I must bear the consequences as I deserve!

Dear me, dear me,' replied a testy voice, 'I am very sorry for it, but what am I to do? I can't build it up again. The chief magistrate of the city can't go and be a rebuilding of people's houses, my good sir. Stuff and nonsense!' 'But the chief magistrate of the city can prevent people's houses from having any need to be rebuilt, if the chief magistrate's a man, and not a dummy—can't he, my lord?' cried the old gentleman in a choleric manner.

If you bring the boy back with his head blown to bits by a musket, don't look to me to put it together again.

So runs the genealogy of many another sin: idleness is usually the grandfather of the crime, whatever the father might be.

Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before—consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves. And it is best to fix our minds on that certainty, instead of considering what may be the elements of excuse for us.

Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust.