90 Responsibility Quotes That Honor Keeping Our Word

This “responsibility quotes” collection will help you create a happy, healthy, and successful life.

Taking responsibility is one of the most important factors that defines a person’s real character.

It is an indication of the type of person you truly are.

Although failing to accept responsibility might work to your advantage on occasion, this poor choice will catch up with you eventually.

It will typically cause more pain or loss for you down the road than if you’d stepped up to the situation and taken responsibility.

To develop self-respect or earn the respect of others, you must be ready to accept responsibility for your actions and failures.

All human beings make mistakes and poor choices from time to time.

How you face that responsible moment is what really matters.

Besides taking personal responsibility, going beyond yourself and taking action to help people or situations around you that call for assistance also reveals something about your character and the type of person you are.

Keeping your word earns you the respect and admiration of those around you.

It shows that you value yourself enough to act with integrity.

To help you create a happy, healthy, and successful life, below is our collection of responsibility quotes, responsibility sayings, and responsibility proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.

If you enjoy this article, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily motivation. 

Browse our entire collection of inspirational quotes for more motivating ideas and concepts.

Responsibility quotes that honor keeping our word

1. “Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possibilities inspire you more than the obstacles discourage you.” – Ralph Marston

2. We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” –  George Bernard Shaw

3. A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” –  Bob Dylan

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4. “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

5. The price of greatness is responsibility.” –  Winston Churchill

6. “You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” – Jim Rohn

7. “The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that’s the day you start to the top.” – O. J. Simpson

8. “It’s in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It’s not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive pleasure.” –  Jordan Peterson

9. “The victim mindset dilutes the human potential. By not accepting personal responsibility for our circumstances, we greatly reduce our power to change them.” –  Steve Maraboli

10. “Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.” – Hubert Selby Jr

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Responsibility quotes that will help you earn the respect and admiration of others

11. “Like crying wolf, if you keep looking for sympathy as a justification for your actions, you will someday be left standing alone when you really need help.”  – Criss Jami

12. “Choices may be unbelievably hard but they’re never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that’s not how a person with integrity acts.”  – Patrick Ness

13. And a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.”  – Kurt Vonnegut

14. “I believe in recovery, and as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it.”  – Ann Richards

15. “Accepting personal responsibility for your life frees you from outside influences – increases your self-esteem – boosts confidence in your ability to decisions – and ultimately leads to achieve success in life.”  – Roy T. Bennett

16. “You always have a choice. Don’t ever imagine you don’t. Whatever you do, it’s a decision and you have to accept responsibility for it. That’s when honor becomes more than empty words.”  – Lynn Flewelling

17. “We must all work in harmony with each other to stand up for what is right, to speak up for what is fair, and to always voice any corrections so that the ignorant become informed and justice is never ignored. Every time a person allows an act of ignorance to happen, they delay our progress for true change. Every person, molecule and thing matters. We become responsible for the actions of others the instant we become conscious of what they are doing wrong and fail to remind them of what is right.”  – Suzy Kassem

18. “Stop pointing fingers and placing blame on others. Your life can only change to the degree that you accept responsibility for it.”  – Steve Maraboli

19. You must be the change you want to see in the world.”  – Mahatma Gandhi

20. “It is only when you take responsibility for your life that you discover how powerful you truly are.” – Allanah Hunt

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Responsibility quotes that will help improve your life

21. “Among the greatest tragedies is a person who believes that they aren’t meant to win, by winning I mean find their purpose, passion, and joy in life. They believe that other people have better DNA or happiness genes or something, but that they themselves are missing a critical chromosome. This is a lie and it is begging to be unbelieved. For the moment we know the truth about ourselves, we can take both responsibility for our own lives and inspired action to create exactly the life which is our birthright. In other words, you were meant to win.” – Jacob Nordby

22. “Be active! Take on responsibility! Work for the things you believe in. If you do not, you are surrendering your fate to others.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

23. The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self- respect springs.”  – Joan Didion

24. “The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”  – Denis Waitley

25. “Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . .. In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.”  – Michael Korda

26. Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.”  – George Washington Carver

27. “In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.”  – Abraham Lincoln

28. “It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”  – J. W. Goethe

29. “You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.”   – Marianne Williamson

30. “A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsible for your life, and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make.” – Denis Waitley

Responsibility quotes to help you turn those dreams into reality

31. “Take responsibility for your own happiness, do not expect people or things to bring you happiness, or you could be disappointed.” –  Rodolfo Costa

32. “The power behind taking responsibility for your actions lies in putting an end to negative thought patterns. You no longer dwell on what went wrong or focus on whom you are going to blame. You don’t waste time building roadblocks to your success. Instead, you are set free and can now focus on succeeding.”  – Lorii Myers

33. “You’re responsible for your journey in life, no one else. You have to know the destination to go there. Others can help show you the way, but no one can take you there.”  – Debasish Mridha MD

34. “Responsibility is the possibility of opportunity culminating in inevitable fulfillment.” – Sri Chinmoy

35. “We are not put here on earth to play around. There is work to be done. There are responsibilities to be met. Humanity needs the abilities of every man and woman.” – Alden Palmer

36. “Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing… they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.” – Samuel Smiles

37. “The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.” – John C. Maxwell

38. “A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.” – James Allen

39. “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” – Anne Frank

40. “All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you.” – Wayne Dyer

Other responsibility quotes to inspire and teach

41. Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

42. “Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will – his personal responsibility.” – Albert Einstein

43. “When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.” – Louis Nizer

44. “A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with — a man is what he makes of himself.” – Alexander Graham Bell

45. “No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.” – William Penn

46. Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.” – Epictetus

47. “No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility.” – Gerald W Johnson

48. “To decide to be at the level of choice, is to take responsibility for your life and to be in control of your life.” – Arbie M. Dale

49. “Where there is great power, there is great responsibility.”  – Sir Winston Churchill

50. “Most relationships fall apart because two people get sick of blaming each other for the things they will not take responsibility for.” –  Nitya Prakash

More responsibility quotes and sayings

51. “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

52. Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” – Sigmund Freud

53. “In dreams begin responsibilities.” – William Butler Yeats

54. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.” – Colin Powell

55. “Responsibility is a grace you give yourself not an obligation.” – Dan Millman

56. “If you choose not to live self-responsibly, you count on others to make up your default. No one abjures self-responsibility on a desert island.” – Nathaniel Branden

57. “Always be the light. Do not wait for others to take responsibility.” – Sunday Adelaja

58. “Be more receptive of your responsibility than you are of your rights.” – Amit Kalantri

59. “You are responsible for overcoming guilt by rising above it, by growing beyond yourselves, by changing for the better.” – Viktor E. Frankl

60. “Responsibility is the joy of knowing that you can find a way.” – Sharon Pearson

Responsibility Quotes That Inspire Good Leadership 

61. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”— Lao Tzu

62. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader. – John Quincy Adams

63. “In the old days, words like sin and Satan had a moral certitude. Today, they’re replaced with self-help jargon, words like dysfunction and antisocial behavior, discouraging any responsibility for one’s actions..” — Don Henley

64. “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” — George Bernard Shaw

65. Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.” — Ayn Rand,

66. “There is always an alternative to the present urgency—and it’s not a vacation, it’s acknowledging deeper responsibility.” — Stewart Brand

67. “In order to win and succeed in life, responsibility is so important. This is a part of being an adult and learning how to be responsible for everything” — Tonya R. Owens

68. “Freedom without responsibility is like weight without gravity in physics — a logical impossibility.” — Robert C. Solomon

69. “Responsibility is demonstrated by actions and deeds; not by words or information inserted in some glossy magazines or corporate websites.” — Samuel O Idowu

70. “Each one of us is responsible for the world – each one of us must give a hand to build our world in a humane manner, crossing faith, fate, and family.” Abhijit Naskar

Everyday Responsibility Quotes To Educate & Inspire Action

71. “Accepting complete responsibility for your life means that you refuse to make excuses or blame others for anything in your life that you’re not happy about.” — Brian Tracy

72. “No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life.” – Jordan Peterson

73. “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

74. “You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility.” — Byron Dorgan

75. “It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.” — Josiah Stamp

76. “Adulthood is defined by the willingness to accept full responsibility for where you are at in life; no longer blaming others or circumstances.” — Joe Westbrook

77. “Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work.” — Adrienne Rich 

78. “Responsibility is a grace we give ourselves. It is not something imposed from outside of us. We have a say in how our life goes.” – Kristen Moeller

79. “Responsibility is the thing people dread the most of all. Yet it is the one thing in the world that develops us, gives us manhood or womanhood fiber.” — Dr. Frank Crane

80. “Responsibility educates.” — Wendell Phillips

Responsibility Quotes To Give You Power

81. “Remember, you are responsible for your future, so take charge and turn your life into whatever it is that you want it to be.” ― Sharlene Snow

82. “The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves.” ― Oscar Arias

83. “Responsibility changes everything. The moment we decide that we are the ones who are capable of and responsible for changing things, everything shifts.” ― John B. Izzo

84. “Fully accepting, loving, and being yourself allows you to be 100% authentic. This means being fully responsible for yourself.” ― John Felitto

85. The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.” ― George Eliot

86. “Skills can be taught and developed, but attitudes are difficult to change and ultimately are the responsibility of each person.” ― Gary Schulz

87. “Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power.” ― J. G. Holland

88. The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.” ― Peter Drucker

89. “Take responsibility, trust, and have faith in yourself that you can offer the world something that no one has ever known.” ― Paul Martens

90. “You must accept responsibility for your actions, but not the credit for your achievements.” ― Denis Waitley

Which of these responsibility quotes resonated with you best?

Failing to take responsibility can have dire consequences.

It can have severe effect on your own mind and heart and leave you viewing your life as having little to no real value.

Accepting responsibility for your own actions makes life more fulfilling.

Hopefully, the above quotes will inspire a happy, healthy and successful life.

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Which of the quotes was your favorite?

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