Stephen Covey Quotes

You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut.

Will we act upon life, or will we merely be acted upon?

Always surround yourself with people who are even more talented and competent than you.

Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.

Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationships with others.

Principles don't die. They aren't here one day and gone the next. They can't be destroyed by fire, earthquake or theft. Principles are deep, fundamental truths, classic truths.

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

The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

You can't change the fruit without changing the root.

We often get so busy "sawing" (producing results) that we forget to "sharpen our saw" (maintain or increase our capacity to produce results in the future).

All broken relationships can be traced back to broken agreements

The environment you fashion out of your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideals, your philosophy is the only climate you will ever live in. The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.

One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present.

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.

If you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own.

The human will is an amazing thing. Time after time, it has triumphed against unbelievable odds.

Be sure that, as you scramble up the ladder of success, it is leaning against the right building.

To live; to love; to learn; and to leave a legacy.

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

Most people think of leadership as a position and therefore don't see themselves as leaders.

Once you've found your own voice, the choice to expand your influence, to increase your contribution, is the choice to inspire others to find their voice.

The highest challenge inside organizations is to enable each person to contribute his or her unique talents and passion to accomplish the organization's purpose.

Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way.

There is so much we can do to render service, to make a difference in the world - no matter how large or small our circle of influence.

Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her.

You can buy a person's hands but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is.

To know and not to do is not to know.

Highly proactive people don't blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice.

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

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

One of the best ways to educate our hearts is to look at our interaction with other people, because our relationships with others are fundamentally a reflection of our relationship with ourselves.

Private victories precede public victories.

The fire inside people is like a match; the way to ignite that flame is initially through friction, then other matches are lit through warmth.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success

Remember that our reactions are a product of our perceptions, and our perceptions are a result of what is at the center of our life.

A long, healthy, and happy life is the result of making contributions, of having meaningful projects that are personally exciting and contribute to and bless the lives of others.

Taking initiative is a form of self-empowerment.

The only thing that endures over time is the 'Law of the Farm.' You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water if you expect to reap the harvest.

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

Our character is basically a composite of our habits.

The only person I know, is the person I want to be

We don't invent our missions, we detect them.

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

More essential than working on attitudes and behaviors is examining the paradigms out of which those attitudes and behaviors flow.

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

We accomplish all that we do through delegation - either to time or to other people.

Your power to choose your direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation.

Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.

Our lives are the results of our choices. To blame and accuse other people, the environment, or other extrinsic factors is to choose to empower those things to control us.