I really need a good explanation of the quote "Liberty means responsibility. Thats why most men dream it"

Answer 1

To add to your first post, also, Bravery would come into play. Most times responsibility takes bravery, that is why "most men dream it" .......

Answer 2

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."

George Bernard Shaw
Maxims for Revolutionists, Man and Superman, the Revolutionist's Handbook
(1903)

The context:

The art of government is the organization of idolatry.

Nothing can be unconditional, consequently nothing can be free.

Beware of the man wose god is in the skies.

Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her.

What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness.

Answer 3

Many people don't want to accept the responsibility so they can not achieve liberty. Liberty require people to act with having to be told, or because it is the law. If we all a were to take responsible for ourselves in stead of trying to blame every one else we would have more liberties.

Answer 4

To be truly free you have to do your own thinking, make your own decisions and act on your own wishes. When you think about all the things that people habitually let others (government, mainstream media, family, friends) decide and do for them, the list can be quite overwhelming. It's just so much easier to let others take care of it all.

Answer 5

Simple, it means you take responsibility for whatever actions you take, good or bad. The bad teaches you to correct yourself and your wrongs, which leads you a step closer to your goal.

Answer 6

You have misquoted the quote. It shoule be:" Liberty means responsibility. Thats why most men DREAD it." Not DREAM it.

At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfect, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path, if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments.--Aung San Sun Kyi

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.--Albert Ellis

The challenges of change are always hard. It is important that we begin to unpack those challenges that confront this nation and realize that we each have a role that requires us to change and become more responsible for shaping our own future.--Hillary Rodham Clinton

The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.--Stanley Milgram

Each individual in fact has moral responsibility for the acts which he personally performs; no one can be exempted from this responsibility, and on the basis of it everyone will be judged by God himself.--Pope John Paul II ("Evangelium Vitae")

Enough! It's time to grow up. If we want to play adult games--living our Dream--we must play by adult rules. One of the primary adult rules: We are individually responsible for our own lives.--John-Roger and Peter McWilliams (Do It! Let's Get Off our Buts)

Everyone is responsible and no one is to blame.--Will Schutz

Everything proceeds as if of its own accord, and this can all too easily tempt us to relax and let things take their course without troubling over details. Such indifference is the root of all evil.--I Ching

Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.--Booker T. Washington

God has entrusted me with myself.--Epictetus

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.--Plato

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.--Ronald Reagan

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.-- John Maxwell (Developing the Leader Within You)

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them.--T.S. Eliot

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.--Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)

I believe that all of us have the capacity for one adventure inside us, but great adventure is facing responsibility day after day.--William Gordon

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.--John D. Rockfeller, Jr.

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.--Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

I believe you have a responsibility to comport yourself in a manner that gives an example to others. As a young man, I prayed for success. Now I pray just to be worthy of it.--Brendan Fraser (Parade, 7/30/2000)

I don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.--Oprah Winfrey

I take care of myself, because I learned early on that I am the only person in life who's responsible for me.--Halle Berry

If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are at least responsible for those we admit and entertain.--Charles B. Newcomb

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.--Eleanor Roosevelt

It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.--Josiah Stamp

It is not size or age that separates children from adults. It is responsibility.--Jules Feiffer

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.--Peter Ustinov

It is tempting at one level to believe that bad things happen to people (especially other people) because God is a righteous judge who gives them exactly what they deserve. By believing that we keep the world orderly and understandable.... But [this belief] has a number of serious limitations.... It teaches people to blame themselves. It creates guilt when there is no basis for guilt. And most disturbing of all, it does not even fit the facts.--Rabbi Harold Kushner

Let there be no doubt: as long as you continue to blame others instead of assuming your responsibilities, you will make no meaningful and enduring change for the better. What kind of people are we, if we don't have the character to own up to our own shortcomings and responsibilities? To have and enjoy certain liberties requires us to hold each other and ourselves accountable for our actions.--Gary Ryan Blair (Mind Munchies : A Delicious Assortment of Brain Snacks!)

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.--Abraham Lincoln (Address at Cooper Union, New York, February 27, 1860)

Liberty means responsibility. That's why most men dread it.--Antonio de Mendoza

The man who is fond of complaining likes to remain amid the objects of his vexation. He will most strongly revolt against every means proposed for his deliverance. This is what suits him. He asks nothing better than to sigh over his position and to remain in it.--Francois Guizot

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you I the best place for the next moment.--Oprah Winfrey

Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility.--Elizabeth Cady Stanton

People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights.--Indira Gandhi (Last Words)

Responsibility is the most powerful internal motivator for problem solving. When you remove it, all that remains is the lesser drive of self-preservation. If necessity is the mother of invention then responsibility is its father.--Mark A. Crouch (Bouncing Off Paper Walls)

Responsible persons are mature people who have taken charge of themselves and their conduct, who own their actions and own up to them--who answer for them.--William J. Bennett (The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories 3)

Self-responsibility is the core quality of the fully mature, fully functioning, self-actualizing individual.--Brian Tracey (The Treasury of Quotes)

Some shrugged their shoulders as if to shake off whatever chips of responsibility might have lodged there.--Helen Hudson (Meyer Meyer)

To decide to be at the level of choice, is to take responsibility for your life and to be in control of your life.--Arbie M. Dale

Tomorrow's leaders not only have dreams, goals and plans. They are willing to work hard and to take responsibility for turning their plans into energy, perspiration and effort. They don't sit back and wait for someone else to turn their dreams into action. They take charge of executing their own plan.--Denis Waitley

We live in the age of "Everything Has Rights." Now, I'm not denying that the concept of rights is valid, but I wonder … whatever happened to obligations? One rarely hears the term anymore. Indeed, have you ever heard of a "human obligations movement?" … The very ideal that holds a democracy together--the willingness to make personal sacrifice for the common good--is going quickly by the wayside.--John K. Rosemond ("Who's in Charge Around Here?" Hemispheres Sept. 1999)

We must exchange the philosophy of excuse--what I am is beyond my control--for the philosophy of responsibility.--Barbara Jordan (Educom Review, 2/17/98)

We need to teach the next generation of children from Day One that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.--Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.--Robert Anthony (Dr.)

Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity.--M Scott Peck

You are the only one who can use your ability. It is an awesome responsibility.--Zig Ziglar (Zig Ziglar's Little Book of Big Quotes)

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.--Abraham Lincoln