ACCOUNTABILITY
Quotes
1
When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself. — Louis Nizer
2
If you can’t stand the heat, you’d better get out of the kitchen.
— Harry S. Truman (attrib.)
3
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for injury.
— John Stuart Mill
4
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
— Stanislaw Lec
5
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
— Benjamin Franklin
6
There can be no true response without responsibility; there can be no responsibility without response.
— Arthur Vogel
7
A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
— Dean Acheson
8
If you let other people do it for you, they will do it to you.
— Robert Anthony
9
The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit of doing them.
— Benjamin Jowett
10
The irony of the matter is that the future generations do not have a vote. In effect, we hold their proxy.
— Charles J. Hitch, regarding the environment
11
...if a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.
— Claude McKay
12
I have her life, I can take life away.
— Mary Beth Whitehead, on her role as surrogate mother to Baby M
13
People think responsibility is hard to bear. It’s not. I think that sometimes it is the absence of responsibility that is harder to bear. You have a great feeling of impotence.
— Henry Kissinger
Sayings
1
God gave burdens, also shoulders.
— Yiddish proverb
2
Everyone, in the final analysis, is in business for himself.
3
Silence = Death.
— Slogan for AIDS activists
Jokes
1
“Gee, Mr. Schmertz, we’d really like to give you that loan,” said the bank officer to the rather seedy character, “but your credit rating isn’t exactly...uh...superlative. What assurance can you offer that it’ll be paid back on schedule?”
“Won’t a gentleman’s word of honor be sufficient?” he asked, in an injured tone.
“Certainly,” she said brightly. “When will you be bringing him in?”
2
The Six Phases of a Project: 1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic and hysteria
4. Search for the guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Praise and honor for the nonparticipants