It strikes this Sauntering mind that essays have influenced the world. A notable instance is mentioned by Theodore Rockwell, biographer of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover:
The point about the inescapability of responsibility was basic Rickover dogma, and he never missed an opportunity to drive it home. He circulated copies of John Grier Hibben’s ‘Essay on Responsibility’ to all the staff and expected them to read and learn from it. (Rockwell, T. 1992 The Rickover Effect. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.)
In the essay’s closing paragraph Hibben distills its message:
If a man would escape all responsibility he must place himself wholly outside of the relations of life, for life is responsibility. As we have seen, responsibility remains with us even though we may ask others to assume it; we share it with others, but our portion is the same; when we turn our backs on it, we find it still facing us; we flee from it, and however far it may be, we behold it waiting for us at the journey’s end. (in: Hibben, J. G. 1911 A Defense of Prejudice. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.)
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