We’ve all heard them. Those trite, overdone phrases people use to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions. “It’s not my fault,” or “I don’t have time.” Well, today we’re going to call BS on all of them. This is a compilation of some of the best excuse quotes out there, and we’re going to debunk them one by one.

The best excuse quotes

1. Excuses can be your servant, but you must never become their slave. — Paul Clayton Gibbs, The Seed and the Cloud: Alternative Thoughts on Finding Direction

2. When people talk about their great past they’re usually trying to excuse the mediocre present. — Terry Pratchett

3. Excuse me, there’s no pretense here. I happen to be genuinely self–absorbed and deeply shallow. — Stephen Schwartz

4. No business can be made easier to do than excuses are to make. — Orrin Woodward

5. The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination. — Nolan Bushnell

6. I have a daughter and she’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me. She gives me a good excuse to watch cartoons. — Mike Dirnt

7. A life full of excuses is a life full of regrets — Thibaut Meurisse

8. Victims make excuses. Leaders deliver results. — Robin Sharma

9. Beneath every excuse lies a fear. Practice being fearless. — Robin Sharma

10. To buy excuses, a person must sell his dream. — Orrin Woodward

11. Fear is never a reason for quitting; it is only an excuse. — Norman Vincent Peale

12. It’s a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken — Walter Dean

13. A spider is hardly an excuse to abuse a book. — Rebecca Chastain, A Fistful of Fire

14. Don’t use the hardships of your past as excuses to deny the possibilities of your future. — Robin Sharma

15. The more you stop giving power to your excuses, the more you’ll send power to your dreams. — Robin Sharma

16. Don’t make excuses — accept responsibility. You must take responsibility for how you respond to everything that happens in your life

17. Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy. — Thurgood Marshall

18. Outside nature, against nature, without excuse, beyond remedy, except what remedy I find within myself.–Jean — Paul Sartre

19. Imperfection is simply not a good enough excuse to have someone keep hurting you just because they feel like it. — Pandora Poikilos, Excuse Me, My Brains Have Stepped Out

20. Stop making excuses and start making history. — A.D. Posey

21. Only ignorance excuses stupidity — Nalini Singh, Angels’ Blood

22. Do grown men always have to play games? Does everything have to be an excuse for another kind of game? Do any men grow up or do they only come of age? — Stephen King, The Gunslinger

23. The idea of cultural relativism is nothing but an excuse to violate human rights. — Shirin Ebadi

24. Victim fall in love with excuses — Robin S. Sharma

25. Excuse me … but I reject your definitions of me. — Saul Bellow

26. Neurosis is no excuse for bad manners. — Sigmund Freud

27. Sometimes evil didn’t need an excuse. Sometimes evil just was. — Nenia Campbell, Cease and Desist

28. Excuses can be your servant, but you must never become their slave. — Paul Clayton Gibbs, The Seed and the Cloud: Alternative Thoughts on Finding Direction

29. You won’t find your dream until you lose your excuses. — Orrin Woodward

30. There is no excuse not to give two minutes today to intend your tomorrow. — Rhonda Byrne

31. My biggest excuse to others and myself was that I had writer’s block, as if it was some kind of illness. — Mary Garden

32. It is easy to make excuses when we ought to be making opportunities. — Warren W. Wiersbe

33. I asked the question for the best reason possible, for the only reason, indeed, that excuses anyone for asking any question–simple curiosity. — Oscar Wilde

34. Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better. — Mason Cooley

35. Don’t let your imperfections conveniently excuse you from having discipline. Have the courage to work through your imperfections. — Matthew Donnelly

36. Why can’t we summon the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us? The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What’s our excuse? — Neil Degrasse Tyson

37. Damn you, you made up lame excuses and practically patted me on the head. And tonight, you’ve got an itch and you’re annoyed that I wasn’t here to scratch it. — Nora Roberts

38. Excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed. — Ray Nagin

39. You can either hold onto your dream by letting go of your excuses or hold onto your excuses by letting go of your dream. — Orrin Woodward

40. Fear is never a reason for quitting; it is only an excuse. — Norman Vincent Peale

41. Success in WRITING occurs when your DREAMS are BIGGER than your EXCUSES. — T.N. Suarez, The Limbo Tree

42. Any excuse, no matter how valid, only weakens the character. — Thomas S. Monson

43. A loss is not a failure until you make an excuse. — Michael Jordan

44. Work hard and never make excuses. — Master P

45. Rhodora! If the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

46. Rule #76: No excuses. Play like a champion! — Vince Vaughn

47. Sometimes LIFE is rough and tough. That’s still NO excuse for you to be. — Tanya Masse

48. Sometimes, if she simply remained quiet, and let the inadequacy of his excuses reverberate on the air, he became ashamed and backtracked. — J. K. Rowling

49. No excuses. No explanations. — Tony Dungy

50. There’s no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were. — Nina Simone

Conclusion

No matter how good your excuses may sound, the truth is that we are all accountable for our actions. We must take responsibility and accept the consequences of our decisions. To make meaningful progress in life, it is important to learn from our mistakes and strive to do better. It is ok to make mistakes and it is ok to want to make excuses, but it is important to remember that excuses do not make problems go away. All we can do is work to understand the reasons behind our mistakes and find ways to improve our behavior. By doing this, we can become better versions of ourselves and take ownership of our lives.