Stephen Covey Quotes

Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy.

Quality relationships are built on principles, especially the principle of trust.

Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual phrased, it, "like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic".

A life of integrity is the most fundamental source of personal worth.

The real beginning of influence comes as others sense you are being influenced by them - when they feel understood by you - that you have listened deeply and sincerely, and that you are open.

The heart and soul of loving yourself is integrity and the peace of conscience it inspires.

At the core, there is one simple, overarching reason why so many people remain unsatisfied in their work and why most organisations fail to draw out the greatest talent, ingenuity, and creativity of their people and never become truly great, enduring organisations. It stems from an incomplete paradigm of who we are - our fundamental view of human nature. The fundamental reality is, human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four-dimensional - body, mind, heart, and spirit.

Distinguish between the person and the behavior or performance.

Private Victory precedes Public Victory. Algebra comes before calculus.

Fundamentally, we are a product of choice, not nature (genes) or nurture (upbringing, environment).

The key to acting with integrity is to simply stop playing the game.

The reflection of the current social paradigm tells us we are largely determined by conditioning and conditions.

If you don't have confidence in the diagnosis, you won't have confidence in the prescription.

You can retire from a job, but don't ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.

When a person has access to both the intuitive, creative and visual right brain, and the analytical, logical, verbal left brain, then the whole brain is working...And this tool is best suited to the reality of what life is, because life is not just logical-it is also emotional.

Putting first things first means organizing and executing around your most important priorities. It is living and being driven by the principles you value most, not by the agendas and forces surrounding you.

The key to creating passion in your life is to find your unique talents, and your special role and purpose in the world.

All broken relationships can be traced back to broken agreements

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

I can change. I can live out of my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past

If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control-myself. I can stop trying to shape up my wife and can work on my own weaknesses. I can focus an being a great marriage partner, a source of unconditional love and support. Hopefully, my wife will feel the power of proactive example and respond in kind. But, whether she does or doesn't, the most positive way I can influence my situation is to work on myself, on my being.

You have two ears and one mouth. Use them accordingly.

The only way we can handle change around us is to know what is changeless about ourselves

Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.

The universal elements are integrity, vision, discipline, passion, governed by conscience. Conscience has been educated through studying and pondering the universal, timeless principles of all six major world religions.

Management works in the system; leadership works on the system.

Empathic listening is so powerful because it gives you accurate data to work with. Instead of projecting your own autobiography and assuming thoughts, feelings, motives and interpretation, you're dealing with the reality inside another person's head and heart. You're listening to understand. You're focused on receiving the deep communication of another human soul.

Only as we keep an open communication with our deep inner life will we have the wisdom to make effective choices.

By centering our lives on timeless, unchanging principles, we create a fundamental paradigm of effective living. It is the center that puts all other centers in perspective.

In effective personal leadership, visualization and affirmation techniques emerge naturally out of a foundation of well thought through purposes and principles that become the center of a person's life.

Don't cheat people of their growth. Empower them to solve problems and generate ideas. Watch them grow!

Trust is the highest form of human motivation.

It's easy to say ''no!'' when there's a deeper ''yes!'' burning inside.

We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us.

A good affirmation has five basic ingredients: it's personal, it's positive, it's present tense, it's visual, and it's emotional.

Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.

In the absence of wake-up calls, many of us never really confront the critical issues of life.

Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are - or as we are conditioned to see it.

Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe this is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds.

The deepest desire of the human spirit is to be acknowledged.

Valuing differences is what really drives synergy. Do you truly value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people? Or do you wish everyone would just agree with you so you could all get along? Many people mistake uniformity for unity; sameness for oneness. One word--boring! Differences should be seen as strengths, not weaknesses. They add zest to life.

There's strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.

The first principle of ethical power is Purpose. By purpose, I don't mean your objective or intention-something toward which you are always striving. Purpose is something bigger. It is the picture you have of yourself-the kind of person you want to be or the kind of life you want to lead.

People are your most valuable asset. Only people can be made to appreciate in value.

This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life—investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute.

There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles.

I am senting many books for endorsement purposes, which enables me to stay relevant in my own field, and I have people that help me decide which ones I should read and endorse.