70 Blame Quotes on How To Stop Playing the Blame Game

By Stephanie Kirby | Published September 22, 2022

These blame quotes show what a waste of time the blame game really is.

Blame is something that we will all be involved with in life, but hopefully, you will have as little to do with it as possible.

Whether you are someone who regularly blames others or you get blamed by someone, you will experience blame in your life.

What you can see throughout life is that the best leaders are not blamers.

They are problem solvers and uniters.

They know that playing the blame game can tear apart a team or a relationship and therefore they focus instead on bringing people together.

Bringing people together is the way to get the most out of a team or a relationship.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here.

Blame quotes about leaders

1. “Leaders inspire accountability through their ability to accept responsibility before they place blame.” – Courtney Lynch

You will also enjoy our article on contentment quotes.

2. “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” – Arnold H. Glasgow

You will also enjoy our article on Matrix quotes.

3. “Ownership: ‘A commitment of the head, heart, and hands to fix the problem and never again affix the blame.” – John G. Miller

You will also enjoy our article on scapegoat quotes.

4. “Great leaders don’t rush to blame. They instinctively look for solutions.” – Nina Easton

Why we blame quotes

5. “Blaming others is nothing more than excusing yourself.” – Robin Sharma

6. “The job isn’t done until you’ve blamed someone for the parts that went wrong.” – Scott Adams

7. “The reason people blame things on the previous generation is that there’s only one other choice.” – Doug Larson

8. “Blame is just a lazy person’s way of making sense of chaos.” – Douglas Coupland

9. “To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.” – Hubert Humphrey

10. “When you blame and criticize others, you are avoiding some truth about yourself.” – Deepak Chopra

11. “We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers — you can blame anyone, but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault because if you want to change, you’re the one who has got to change. It’s as simple as that, isn’t it?” – Katharine Hepburn

12. “The pride of man hopes but to blame God for the evils of the world, and to praise himself for the good.” – Criss Jami

Blame quotes that show it doesn’t solve the problem when you blame others

13. “You become a Victim when you blame yourself or others for some problem or error.” – Jay Fiset

14. “There’s nothing kills a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself.” – George Eliot

15. “You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.” – Oprah Winfrey

16. “When we assign blame we are pointing the finger to who or what is responsible for a fault or for a wrongdoing. We are trying to make others accountable. Blaming does not solve a problem it usually only makes people defensive.” – Catherine Pulsifer

17. “You are the reason of your own good-luck and bad-luck; success and failure; happiness and pain. Your choices are responsible for your present. Don’t blame someone else for your sufferings or failures.” – Sanjeev Himachali

18. “The trouble with blame is this all or nothingness, this black or whiteness. People are drawn to extremes. As soon as we have to study the gray areas, we lean to one side.” – Sharon Lamb

19. “Blame is the number one recipe for disaster in your home! You will not heal if you leave that word in your vocabulary.” – Patrick T. Gorman

20. “You’ll never get ahead by blaming your problems on other people.” –Willie Nelson

Blame quotes about accepting responsibility

21. “Focus on fixing the problem, never focus on the blame. Problems are only resolved when solutions are sought.” – Catherine Pulsifer

22. “Take accountability… Blame is the water in which many dreams and relationships drown.” – Steve Maraboli

23. “The absent always bear the blame.” – Dutch Proverb

blame quotes about the absent always bear the blame

24. “It’s always easy to blame others. You can spend your entire life blaming the world, but your success and failures are entirely your own responsibility.” – Paulo Coelho

25. “You made your choices to get where you are now in life, stop blaming others for your misfortune and choose wisely next time.” – Leon Brown

26. “When you blame others, you give up your power to change.” – Robert Anthony

27. “Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.” – Joseph Campbell

If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of Joseph Campbell quotes to inspire long term thinking.

28. “It’s time to care; it’s time to take responsibility; it’s time to lead; it’s time for a change; it’s time to be true to our greatest self; it’s time to stop blaming others.” ― Steve Maraboli

Blame quotes on what to do instead

29. “The dream doesn’t lie in victimization or blame; it lies in hard work, determination and a good education.” – Alphonso Jackson

30. “Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.” – Brene Brown

31. “A bad mood is often the reason for blaming others; but very often blaming others causes bad feelings in us: the more we blame others, the worse we feel.” – Leo Tolstoy

32. “Never blame another person for your personal choices – you are still the one who must live out the consequences of your choices.” – Caroline Myss

33. “Blame is the granddaddy of the victim behaviors. You cannot address problems until you stop blaming others or yourself. Blame is the opposite of problem-solving, even when the content of the blame is justifiable. Blame is the essence of the victim experience, and this experience is the basis of immature social behaviors. When you feel like a victim, you pass off responsibility to others for solving your problems or you attempt to escape.” – James R. Baugh

34. “There’s enough grief in this world without always getting into whose fault it is.” – Lisa Samson

35. “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.” – George Bernard Shaw

36. “Blaming others will confine you to a life of mediocrity.” – ATGW

More blame quotes

37. “When people are lame, they love to blame.” – Robert Kiyosaki

38. One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it’s remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver’s license. – P.J. O’Rourke

39. “Blame is the lazy man’s wages.” – Danish Proverb

40. “Blameless people are always the most exasperating.” – George Eliot

41. “It’s easy to blame others for your situation. It’s much more productive to search your own past and find what caused your faults.” – Anonymous

42. “Blame rings in the ears like the crack of a bell long after it has been silenced.” – Don H. Polston

43. It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another nor himself. – Epictetus

44. “The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

45. “Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.” – Stephen King

46. “Stop blaming other people and circumstances for killing your dreams. The truth is; we tend to talk ourselves out of acting upon our dreams.” – Steve Maraboli

47. “Blaming is a characteristic of losers. Winners take responsibility for their lives and make their dreams a reality.” – ATGW

48. “The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others.” – Don Shula

49. “Blame is not productive. Blame disguises and conceals. Blame alienates and separates. Blame is the killer of community, cooperation, and collaboration.” – Peter Rouse

50. “Some people’s blameless lives are to blame for a good deal.” – Dorothy L. Sayers

Thought-provoking blame quotes to ponder on

51. “There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.” ― Oscar Wilde

52. “There’s plenty of blame to go around.” ― Suzanne Collins

53. “I’m sorry for blaming you for everything I just couldn’t do, and I’ve hurt myself by hurting you.” ― Christina Aguilera

54. “Sometimes I just want to paint the words “It’s my fault” across my forehead to save people the time of being pissed off at me.” ― Christina Westover

55. “Poor God, how often He is blamed for all the suffering in the
world. It’s like praising Satan for allowing all the good that happens.” ― E.A. Bucchianeri

56. “An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself.” ― Epictetus

57. “People always wanted someone to blame, didn’t they?” ― Eileen Wilks

58. “I was still searching for someone to blame for my suffering. I really wanted someone to transfer my hate to, so that I could stop hating myself.” ― Glenn Beck

59. “We may place blame, give reasons, and even have excuses; but in the end, it is an act of cowardice to not follow your dreams.” ― Steve Maraboli

60. “Neither blame or praise yourself.” ― Plutarch

Blame Quotes To Avoid Blaming Others

61. “By blaming others, we fail to find the real solutions to our problems and we do not carry out our own responsibilities.” — Jeb Bush

62. “One of the most common ways of not acknowledging our faults is to blame others.” — Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

63. “One must first learn to live oneself before one blames others.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

54. “A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” — John Burroughs

65. “If you make up your own mind, you can only blame yourself.” — George Best

66. “The more I use a matrix, the easier I make it to blame someone else.” — Mark V. Hurd

67. “Don’t try to blame the pain on anyone. Blaming others won’t erase the pain.” — Hyde

68. “Many think that assigning blame settles matters.” — Mason Cooley

69. “All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, it will not change you.” — Wayne Dyer

70. “The moment that you place blame somewhere, you undermine your resolve to change anything.” — Joseph Brodsky

What did you learn from these blame quotes?

Blaming is such an important issue.

Hopefully reading the quotes above leads you to examine yourself and make sure that you are not a blamer.

You should also make sure that you are not in a relationship, personal or business, with a perpetual blamer.

In that case, you will never be right and will constantly live a life with someone looking for a fault.

If you are the blamer, you need to address it and stop the habit immediately.

People that blame others or circumstances are not as happy or most of the time as successful as people that believe they are responsible for their own situations and how they turn out.