Stephen Covey Quotes
1. But until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.
2. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
3. Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.
4. Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.
5. Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.
6. Start with the end in mind.
7. To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.
8. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
9. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
10. Strength lies in differences, not in similarities
11. Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
12. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.
13. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.
14. Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It’s not logical; it’s psychological.
15. Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.
16. It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.
17. My wife and I just don’t have the same feelings for each other we used to have. I guess I just don’t love her anymore and she doesn’t love me. What can i do?”
“The feeling isn’t there anymore?” I asked.
“That’s right,” he reaffirmed. “And we have three children we’re really concerned about. What do you suggest?”
“love her,” I replied.
“I told you, the feeling just isn’t there anymore.”
“Love her.”
“You don’t understand. the feeling of love just isn’t there.”
“Then love her. If the feeling isn’t there, that’s a good reason to love her.”
“But how do you love when you don’t love?”
“My friend , love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is a fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Serve her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are you willing to do that?
18. You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.
19. To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.
20. We are free to choose our actions, . . . but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.
21. If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.
22. It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.
23. To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.
24. Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.
25. Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).
26. The way we see the problem is the problem.
27. At some time in your life, you probably had someone believe in you when you didn’t believe in yourself.
28. Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love the verb or our loving actions. So love her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her.
29. Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic
30. The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.
31. Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy.
32. You can’t talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into!
33. Courage isn’t absenct of fear, it is the awareness that something else is important
34. Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential.
35. Live out of your imagination, not your history.
36. There are three constants in life… Change, Choice and Principles.
37. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
38. We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.
39. As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves.
40. Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.
41. People simply feel better about themselves when they’re good at something.
42. There’s no better way to inform and expand you mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature.
43. How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.
44. I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow.
45. How you treat the one reveals how you
regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.
46. People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them.
47. If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.
48. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
49. It comes from within.
50. The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
51. Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.
52. If you want to have a more pleasant,cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, emphatic, consistent, loving parent.
53. The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand.
We listen to reply.
54. Independent will is our capacity to act. It gives us the power to transcend our paradigms, to swim upstream, to rewrite our scripts, to act based on principle rather than reacting based on emotion or circumstance.
55. Words are like eggs dropped from great heights. You could no more call them back then ignore the mess they left when they fell.
56. [W]isdom is the child of integrity—being integrated around principles. And integrity is the child of humility and courage. In fact, you could say that humility is the mother of all virtues because humility acknowledges that there are natural laws or principles that govern the universe. They are in charge. Pride teaches us that we are in charge. Humility teaches us to understand and live by principles, because they ultimately govern the consequences of our actions. If humility is the mother, courage is the father of wisdom. Because to truly live by these principles when they are contrary to social mores, norms and values takes enormous courage.
57. Treat them all the same by treating them differently.
58. To maintain the P/PC Balance, the balance between the golden egg (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgment call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness.
59. Begin each day with the blueprint of my deepest values FIRMLY in mind then when challenges come, make decisions BASED on those values.
60. When air is charged with emotions, an attempt to teach is often perceived as a form of judgment and rejection.
