Responsibility, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star.
Interpretation
Responsibility often gets blamed on external forces rather than accepted personally.
In this quote, Ambrose Bierce humorously critiques the tendency of individuals to evade their responsibilities by attributing them to external forces such as fate or luck. By illustrating how people shift their burdens onto divine, cosmic, or social entities, Bierce emphasizes the importance of personal accountability and challenges the reader to reconsider how often they deflect responsibility instead of accepting it.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about personal accountability in a team meeting.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
The various elements of truth stand in perpetual antithesis, sometimes requiring us to believe apparent opposites while we wait for the moment when we shall know as we are known.
It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat sh** and die.
Only in England is the perversion of language regarded as a victory for democracy.
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.
Memory is fiction. We select the brightest and the darkest, ignoring what we are ashamed of, and so embroider the broad tapestry of our lives.
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