Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Quotes

We know that we are not collectively guilty, so how can we accuse any other nation, no matter what some of its people have done, of being collectively guilty?

Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.

Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong

Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one.

Should each individual snowflake be held accountable for the avalanche?

As for the concept of collective guilt, I personally think that it is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons.

We are responsible for actions performed in response to circumstances for which we are not responsible.

I don't blame it on the Hell's Angels. I blame it on the people who were there.

Every nation, like every individual, would like to believe it owes 'no apology' to anyone. Adults realise, however, that few among us are purely innocent or utterly blameless.

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

Rights are not a matter of numbers - and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.

We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom." It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?

Inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided upon a number, than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction . . . will often hurry the persons of whom they were composed into improprieties and excesses for which they would blush in a private capacity.

Idiots are not responsible for what they do. The real guilt falls on rational people who sit on their hands while morons run wild. You can opt out if you want to. Play it safe. But if you do, don't complain when the roof comes down.

In any free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty - all are responsible.

If the victims are my problem, the killers are yours.

Sin we have explain'd away; Unluckily, the sinners stay.

It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one's acts.

We should hold abusers — and no one else — responsible for the damage they inflict.

The fault is as great as hee that is faulty.

Few are guilty, but all are responsible.

Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.

Guilt -- if there was any guilt -- spread out and diffused itself over everybody and everything. . . . Perhaps at some point in time, at some spot in the world, a moment of responsibility existed.

I cannot shift the blame for Chechnya, for the sorrow of numerous mothers and fathers. I made the decision, therefore I am responsible.

How innocent we are of our mistakes and how we responsible we are for them.