His existence had always been comfortable, he had always held a clear picture of himself, his duties, and his place in a world. He saw that world as a place so full of turning gears he had no hope of comprehending how things fit together, so why even try? Now things were different, however. Now he wasn’t just looking out from inside of the clockwork. Instead, he was actually seeing the final motion of the escapement–the ticking hands of the clock itself. And it was a doomsday clock. Both his feline and human instincts told him to let it be. It was not his problem, or his place to interfere. If the living world was destined to fall, let it happen, let it pass into history once and for all. Who was he to try to save it? But on the other hand, if the living world were lost, then there would never again be great cats to furjack . and couldn’t it be that hearing the actual ticking of the clock gave one the responsibility to stop it? . Neal Shusterman
We're not responsible, he thought. This planet is a temporary affair. It's whizzing with all kinds of other ones, a whole range of planetary stuff, toward a star in the Milky Way. On that kind of a planet we're not responsible, he thought.
-
Bertolt Brecht
We prefer to imagine brutal wars and atrocities as events that "just happen" every now and then, much like tornadoes or lightning strikes; this metaphor suggests that we can't generalize from them, since they are radically discontinuous with ordinary life. But wars and atrocities do...
-
Rosa Brooks
The people of Hiroshima went to work at once to restore human society in the aftermath of the great atomic flood. They were concerned to salvage their own lives, but in the process they also salvaged the souls of the people who have brought the...
-
Anonymous
Along with individual responsibility goes some societal responsibility to enable young people and their parents to do what they need to do. Otherwise, what is a society?
-
Robert B. Reich
A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.
-
William James
More Quotes By Neal Shusterman
Conner Lassiter. Scheduled to be unwound the 21st of November-until you went AWOL. You caused an accident that killed a bus driver, left dozens of others injured, and shut down an interstate highway for hours. Then, on top of it, you took a hostage AND...
So the gods must mean something else, ” said Jix.“God, not gods! ” insisted Johnnie.Nick threw up his hands. “God, gods, or whatever, ” said Nick. “Right now, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Jesus, or Kukulcan, or a dancing bear at the end of the...
Happiness is not a state of being. Happiness is a vector, it is movement.
Then, in spite of everything, he began to smile. So much of his existence in Everlost had been full of despair. Despair, and a fear of losing what he had. But Allie was not lost, she was just there across the river, waiting for him...
When I touched that boy, I felt something. Something awful. Something I can’t describe.”“ We all felt it, ” Nick said.“ You may have felt it, but I caused it.” Then both his eyes seemed to go far away. “Something changed out there. <span style="margin:15px;...
