1. To accuse is so easy that it is infamous to do so where proof is impossible.
Zoe Akins (1886-1958) U.S. poet and playwright.
Declassee (1919)
2. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Bible. Matthew, 7:1
3. By blaming others, we fail to find the real solutions to our problems and we do not carry out our own responsibilities.
Jeb Bush (b.1953) U.S. politician. Foundation for Florida’s Future (1996)
4. The pursuit of alibis for poor industry performance is one of the great Australian art forms.
John Button (b.1933) Australian politician. Quoted in “Sayings of the Week,” Sydney Morning Herald (July 5, 1986)
5. Everyone threw the blame on me…they nearly always do. I suppose…they think I shall be able to bear it best.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British prime minister. My Early Life (1947), ch. 17
6. Things that are done, it is needless to speak about…things that are past, it is needless to blame.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.) Chinese philosopher, administrator, and writer. Analects (500? B.C.)
7. One must first learn to live oneself before one blame others.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81) Russian novelist. Notes from the Underground (1864)
8. Good men prefer to be accountable.
Michael Owen Edwardes (b.1930) British company executive. Quoted in How to Manage (Ray Wild; 1982)
9. Blameless people are always the most exaperaring.
George Eliot (1819-80) British novelist. Middlemarch (1871-72)
10. Keep alive the light of justice, and much that men say in blame will pass you by.
Euripides (484?-406? B.C.) Greek playwright. The Suppliant Women (421? B.C.)
11. An expert is someone called in at the last minute to share the blame.
Sam Ewing (1920-2001) U.S. author. Quoted in Reader’s Digest (December 1992)
12. Even doubtful accusations leave a stain behind them.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician and writer. Gnomologia (1732)
13. He who findeth fault meaneth to buy.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician and writer. Gnomologia (1732)
14. Those see nothing but faults that seek for nothing else.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician and writer. Gnomologia (1732)
15. Success is never blamed.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician and writer. Gnomologia (1732), no. 4273
16. He that blames would buy.
George Herbert (1593-1633) English poet. Jacula Prudentum (1651)
17. The offender never pardons.
George Herbert (1593-1633) English poet. Jacula Prudentum (1651)
18. The man who acts the least upbraids the most.
Homer (fl.800 B.C.) Greek poet. Iliad (Alexander Pope, trs; 1715-20)
19. I find that pain of a little censure, even when it unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) U.S. president. Letter to F.Hopkinson (March 13, 1789)
20. It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life…to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise.
Samuel Johnson (1704-84) British poet, lexicographer, essayist, and critic. A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Preface.
21. He has great tranquility of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the faultfinding of men.
Thomas A Kempis (1380?-1471) German mystic, monk, and writer. De. Imitatione Christi (1426)
22. The devil is always blaming someone. Bricks of blame pave the floor of hell.
Brendan Kennelly (b.1936) Irish poet and academic. “Blame,” A Time for Voices (1990)
23. If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.
Francois La Rochefoucauld (1613-80) French epigrammatist. Reflections: or, Sentences and Moral Maxims, 5th edition (1678)
24. If there is no intention, ther is no blame.
Livy (59 B.C. – A.D. 17) Roman historian. 26 B.C.-A.D. 15. History of Rome (26 B.C.-A>D. 15)
25. I wonder how anyone can have the face to condemn others when he reflects upon his own thoughts.
W.Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist. The Summing Up (1938)
26. Rash and incessant scolding runs into custom and renders itself despised.
Michel Eyquem De Montaigne (1533-92) French essayist and moralis. “Of Anger,” Essays (1580-88)
27. They have a right to censure that have a heart to help.
William Penn (1644-1718) English colony builder. Some Fruits of Solitude (1693)
28. Some praise at morning what they blame at night;
But always think the last opinion right.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet. An Essay on Criticism (1711)
29. I accept the responsibility but not the blame.
Robert Semple (1873-1955) New Zealand politician. 1944. Quoted in Dominion (Richard Long; 1984)
30. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English poet and playwright. Hamlet (1601), Act 1, Scene 2
31. Underneath runs the main current of preoccupation, which is keeping one’s nose clean at all times. This means that when things go wrong you have to pass the blame along the line, like pass-the-parcel, till the music stops.
Tom Stoppard (b.1937) British playwright and screenwriter. Neutral Ground (1983)
32. Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.
Lionel Trilling (1905-75) U.S. academic, writer, and literary critic. The Liberal Imagination (1950)
