Afeni Shakur - Lord Denning - Jean-Paul Sartre - George Bernard Shaw - Winston Churchill - Bob Dylan - Noam Chomsky - Thomas Merton - John F Kennedy - Ralph Marston - James Baldwin - Sigmund Freud - Martin Luther - Abraham Lincoln - Georges Duhamel - Good Time 2017 - Yung Chang: Gatekeeper 2016 - Chernobyl 2019 - Stanley Milgrim -
The worst thing that can happen to you is if you don’t take responsibility for what you did wrong. Afeni Shakur
Mrs Weston is clearly liable for damage to the lamp-post. In the civil law if a driver goes off the road on the pavement and injures a pedestrian, or damages property, he is prima facie liable. Likewise if he goes on the wrong side of the road. It is no answer for him to say, ‘I was a learner-driver under instruction. I was doing my best and could not help it.’ The civil law permits no such excuse. It requires of him the same standing of care as any driver. Lord Denning MR, Nettleship v Weston 1971 2 QB 691
Man is condemned to be free. Condemned because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything he does. Jean-Paul Sartre
‘All I want is’ – and he uttered the final words through clenched teeth and with a sort of shame – ‘to retain my freedom.’
‘I should myself have thought,’ said Jacques, ‘that freedom consisted in frankly confronting situations into which one had deliberately entered, and accepting all one’s responsibilities. But that, no doubt, is not your view.’ Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
The price of greatness is responsibility. Winston Churchill, cited Finest Hour 80, Third Quarter 1993
I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom. Bob Dylan
Responsibility I believe accrues through privilege. People like you and me have an unbelievable amount of privilege and therefore we have a huge amount of responsibility. We live in free societies where we are not afraid of the police; we have extraordinary wealth available to us by global standards. If you have those things, then you have the kind of responsibility that a person does not have if he or she is slaving seventy hours a week to put food on the table; a responsibility at the very least to inform yourself about power. Beyond that, it is a question of whether you believe in moral certainties or not. Noam Chomsky
First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for ‘finding himself’. If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you? Thomas Merton
The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities. Each can be neglected only at the peril of the other. I speak to you today, therefore, not of your rights as Americans, but of your responsibilities. They are many in number and different in nature. They do not rest with equal weight upon the shoulders of all. Equality of opportunity does not mean equality of responsibility. All Americans must be responsible citizens, but some must be more responsible than others, by virtue of their public or their private position, their role in the family or community, their prospects for the future, or their legacy from the past. Increased responsibility goes with increased ability, for of those to whom much is given, much is required. John F Kennedy, May 1963
Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possibilities inspire you more than the obstacles discourage you. Ralph Marston
I’m not interested in anybody’s guilt. Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford. I know you didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it either, but I am responsible for it because I am a man and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, too, for the very same reason ... Anyone who is trying to be conscious must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we’ve used so long to cover it up, to lie about the way things are. James Baldwin
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility. Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents
You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. Martin Luther
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. Abraham Lincoln
I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world. Georges Duhamel, 1884-1966, French novelist
I don’t think you are as responsible for this as you think you are. Good Time 2017 starring Robert Pattinson & Jennifer Jason Leigh & Ben Safdie & Barkhad Abdi & Buddy Duress & Taliah Webster & Necro & Peter Verdy et al, directors John & Ben Safdie, shrink and brief to mentally handicapped prisoner
In 2015 there were 24,025 documented suicides in Japan, almost 70 people per day. One of the most popular suicide destinations is Tojinbo Cliffs in Fukui Prefecture. Yung Chang, Gatekeeper, 2016
Man: Well, I’m off.
Wife: Have a good day. ibid.
‘When I first started in 2004, a lot of people thought what I was doing was crazy. They said, Let sleeping dogs lie. How do you expect to save someone if they’re already doomed? They said, Are you stupid?’ ibid. hero
Tojinbo Nonprofit Organisation Support Centre: ‘Let’s meet again but not on the cliffs, OK? ha-ha.’ ibid.
‘About 20 to 30 people were killing themselves in Tonjinbo every year. The community were capitalizing on that. They were exploiting it to attract tourists from across Japan. They were using it as advertising.’ ibid.
‘The success rate for jumpers is 70%.’ ibid. boat tourist trip dude
‘My parents killed themselves when I was in eighth grade. My father in January and my mother in October. When I see people standing on the cliffs, it feels like I’m looking at myself … I feel like I have to save them.’ ibid. lady
‘It’s happened here a few times: parents have jumped with their kids … Someone jumped with a child on their back and a baby in their arms. And there was a murder case when they dumped the body to fake a suicide.’ ibid. hero
‘I have about 20 patrol staff who work when they can.’ ibid.
Daily Patrol Log. ibid.
‘Their cries, their wishes, their hopes. I feel a sense of duty towards them. It’s a responsibility that comes with being born into this world.’ ibid.
Over the last 12 years, Yukio Shige and his team of volunteers have saved 550 people. ibid. caption
Of course no-one can blame me for this. How can I be responsible? I was sleeping. Chernobyl I, Sky Atlantic 2019, Bryukhanov
The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority. Stanley Milgrim