Quotes about Accountability

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to do and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody would do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.

If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it.

We can't claim heaven as our own if we are just going to sit under it.

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.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Cathy told her that the most important thing in life was to clean up one's own mess, commit oneself a hundred percent to reality, place all one's energy in the present moment, and to do so right now, immediately.

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

He who is shipwrecked twice is foolish to blame the sea.

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal consideration should stand in the way of performing a public duty.

Let wickedness escape as it may at the bar, it never fails of doing justice upon itself; for every guilty person is his own hangman.