Selected Quotes by Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey- Stephen Richards Covey (October 24, 1932 – July 16, 2012) was an American author, businessman, educator and speaker. His most popular book is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People".
His other books are: - First Things First, Principle-Centered Leadership - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families - The 8th Habit - The Leader In Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time.
Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people in 1996. At the time of his death, he was also a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University (USU).
Quotes by Stephen Covey:
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
Stephen Covey, Life
You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, non apologetically, 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.”
Stephen Covey, Life, Courage
I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow.
Stephen Covey, Management
Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love the verb or our loving actions. So love her.
Stephen Covey, Love
Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy.
Stephen Covey, Goals
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen Covey, Management
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Stephen Covey, Goals
Live out of your imagination, not your history.
Stephen Covey, Goals
Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.
Stephen Covey, Life
Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.
Stephen Covey, Life
“Our character is basically a composite of our habits because they are consistent. Often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.”
Stephen Covey, Goals, Life
“Once you have a clear picture of your priorities that is values, goals, and high leverage activities, organize your life around them.”
Stephen Covey, Goals, Life
“What you do has greater impact than what you say.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
Stephen Covey, Freedom
“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else trie to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“You can change the fruit without changing the root.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“The only thing that endures over time is the Law of the Farm. You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water it if you expect to reap the harvest.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“A personal mission statement becomes the DNA for every other decision we make.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“Courage is not the absence of fear but the awareness that something else is more important.”
Stephen Covey, Courage
“To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before you need to start doing things you’ve never done before.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“Highly proactive people don’t blame circumstances, conditions or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior of their own conscious choice.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
Stephen Covey, Management
“Be a light not a judge. Be a model not a choice. be part of the solution not part of the problem.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“He who has a why can deal with any what or how.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“Our ultimate freedom is the right and power anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.”
Stephen Covey, Freedom, Power
“Strength lies in differences not in similarities.”
Stephen Covey, Strength
“Listen with your eyes for feelings.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“The way we see the problem is the problem.”
Stephen Covey, Problems
“Accountability breeds response-ability.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“Treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”
Stephen Covey, Management
“Leadership is a choice, not a position.”
Stephen Covey, Management
“Put first things first.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“Think win-win.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“Seek first to understand, and then to be understood.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand. Most people listen with the intent to reply.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“There are three constants in life – change, choice and principles.”
Stephen Covey, Life
“Make time for planning; Wars are won in the general’s tent.”
Stephen Covey, Planning, Anger and Fighting
“Be proactive.”
Stephen Covey, Goals
“Begin with the end in mind.”