#responsibility

"Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self."

"you don't have to worry about burning bridges, if you're building your own"

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

"People have forgotten this truth,"the fox said. "But you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose."

"I am blind and limited. I would be a fool think myself wise. And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the time given to me. I must be true to my heart."

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

"The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same."

"To me, history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is."[The Title Always Comes Last; NEH 2003 Jefferson Lecturer interview profile]"

"And the fox said to the little prince: men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."

"The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon."

"Stop pointing fingers and placing blame on others. Your life can only change to the degree that you accept responsibility for it."

"If you hang out with chickens, you're going to cluck and if you hang out with eagles, you're going to fly."

"Some of the most polished ideas are discovered through healthy, honest debate, so if you don't argue with yourself every once in a while, other people will gladly point out that you missed a spot."

"Never compromise your values."

"People like to say love is unconditional, but it's not, and even if it was unconditional, it's still never free. There's always an expectation attached. They always want something in return. Like they want you to be happy or whatever and that makes you automatically responsible for their happiness because they won't be happy unless you are ... I just don't want that responsibility."

"The function of freedom is to free someone else."

"The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."

"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."

"A man who has come to the full realization of his responsibility to men won't stick to one man. It will be foolhardy if he does that."

"I don't want anyone to look to me, not for protection, not for happiness, not for love, not for anything."