Stephen Covey Quotes

25 July 2012 8 Comments

This is my hand-crafted collection of Stephen Covey quotes.  It is a quote collection like no other.  Stephen Covey was a master of words and a maker of meaning.  His pithy and profound prose forever echoes in our minds, and his timeless wisdom is felt around the world on a daily basis.
What an impact.
Stephen Covey chose his words carefully, as if plucking wisdom from the universe and carefully placing it in our minds in a profound and provocative way.  He inspired us to live his wisdom, by living our way, and expressing a better version of ourselves with the world.
I know a lot of people learned everything they need to know, in kindergarten.  Maybe I’m a late bloomer, but all I really needed to learn, I learned from Stephen Covey.  I learned to lean my ladder up against the right wall; to be proactive; seek first to understand, then to be understood; begin with the end in mind; focus on what’s important; put first things first; don’t get caught in the activity trap; it’s not what happens to us, it’s how we respond; don’t squeeze the goose that lays the golden eggs; avoid a scarcity mentality; make a bigger pie; find the third alternative; and expand my circle of influence.  I also learned the power of habits, the power of principles, the power of discipline, and most importantly, the power of personal effectiveness.
Stephen Covey also taught me where freedom really comes from.
Stephen Covey has given us a lasting legacy of habits, principles, and cornerstone concepts, as well as a rich vocabulary to think about, express, and live our personal leadership.  The language that Covey gave us is all about choice and change, commitment, continuous learning, discipline, efficiency and effectiveness, happiness, integrity, freedom, listening, personal development, perspective, principles, time management, trust, spirit, values, and vision.
It’s a big deal.  It’s a lifetime of contribution.  His legend lives on through his legacy.
Here is a taste of that legacy and the wisdom that Stephen Covey has shared with the world  …

Top 10 Stephen Covey Quotes

1. “As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem”
2. “Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic”
3. “Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy.”
4. “Live out of your imagination, not your history.”
5. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
6. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”
7. “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities”
8. “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
9. ”The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
10. ”Your economic security does not lie in your job; it lies in your own power to produce – to think, to learn, to create, to adapt. That’s true financial independence. It’s not having wealth; it’s having the power to produce wealth.”

Choice and Change

• “Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside.”
• “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
• “Courage isn’t absent of fear, it is the awareness that something else is important.”
• “If we do not teach our children, society will. And they-and we-will live with the results.”
• “It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”
• “My behavior is a product of my own conscious choices based on principles, rather than a product of my conditions, based on feelings.”
• “People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.”
• “The first choice we make each and every day is, ‘Will we act upon life, or will we merely be acted upon?’”
• ”There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles.
• “Those who get the most out of life and those who give the most are those who make the choice to act.”
• “To know and not to do is really not to know.”
• “We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.”

Continuous Learning

• “Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.”
• “Don’t argue for other people’s weaknesses. Don’t argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it immediately.”
• “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.”
• “When you have a challenge and the response is equal to the challenge, that’s called ‘success’. But once you have a new challenge, the old, once-successful response no longer works. That’s why it is called a ‘failure’.”

Efficiency / Effectiveness

• “All the well-meaning advice in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if we’re not even addressing the real problem.”
• “Be sure that, as you scramble up the ladder of success, it is leaning against the right building.”
• “Empathy takes time, and efficiency is for things, not people.”
• “Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential.”
• “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”
• “In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.”
• “Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential. They experience synergy only in small, peripheral ways in their lives. But creative experiences can be produced regularly, consistently, almost daily in people’s lives. It requires enormous personal security and openness and a spirit of adventure.”
• “True effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset (the goose).”
• “We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.”
• “While we cannot always choose what happens to us, we can choose our responses.”

Empowerment and Freedom

• “Accountability breeds response-ability.”
• “Between stimulus and response is our greatest power – the freedom to choose.”
• “Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own efforts. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.”
• “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.”
• “If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.”
• “If you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it is a function of your independent will. You are a disciple, a follower, of your own deep values and their source. And you have the will, the integrity, to subordinate your feelings, your impulses, your moods to those values.”
• “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.”
• “Interdependency follows independence.”
• “It comes from within.”
• “Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
• “Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.”
• “Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.”
• “The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions.”
• “We are responsible for our own lives.”
• “We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.”
• “When life does not go our way or we inadvertently make a mistake, it is so easy to make excuses, place blame on others, or argue that circumstances were against us. But we only progress in life to the extent that we take responsibility for our actions and attitudes, and put forth the initiative necessary to create our own circumstances.”
• “When we succumb to believing that we are victims of our circumstances and yield to the plight of determinism, we lose hope, we lose drive, and we settle into resignation and stagnation.”
• “While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. Consequences are governed by natural law.”

Habits

• “Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”
• “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”
• “Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.”
• “The reflection of the current social paradigm tells us we are largely determined by conditioning and conditions.”

Happiness

• “Basing our happiness on our ability to control everything is futile.”
• “Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.”
• “Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.”
• “Innocent pleasures in moderation can provide relaxation for the body and mind and can foster family and other relationships. But pleasure, per se, offers no deep, lasting satisfaction or sense of fulfillment. The pleasure-centered person, too soon bored with each succeeding level of “fun,” constantly cries for more and more. So the next new pleasure has to be bigger and better, more exciting, with a bigger “high.” A person in this state becomes almost entirely narcissistic, interpreting all of life in terms of the pleasure it provides to the self here and now.”
• “People simply feel better about themselves when they’re good at something.”
• “Too many vacations that last too long, too many movies, too much TV, too much video game playing – too much undisciplined leisure time in which a person continually takes the course of least resistance gradually wastes a life. It ensures that a person’s capacities stay dormant, that talents remain undeveloped, that the mind and spirit become lethargic and that the heart remains unfulfilled.”

I Believe …

• “I believe that a life of integrity is the most fundamental source of personal worth. I do not agree with the popular success literature that says that self-esteem is primarily a matter of mind set, of attitude – that you can psych yourself into peace of mind.”
• “I believe that correct principles are natural laws, and that God, the Creator and Father of us all, is the source of them, and also the source of our conscience. I believe that to the degree people live by this inspired conscience, they will grow to fulfill their natures; to the degree that they do not, they will not rise above the animal plane.”
• “I believe that there are parts to human nature that cannot be reached by either legislation or education, but require the power of God to deal with.”
• “I think the most significant work we’ll do in our whole life, in our whole world is done within the four walls of our home.”
• “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
• “We can’t live without eating, but we don’t live to eat.”
• “We are not our feelings. We are not our moods. We are not even our thoughts.”
• “While I believe in the power of positive thought, I do not believe that you or I can simply psyche ourselves into success or peace of mind.”

Integrity

• “As we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.”
• “As you live your values, your sense of identity, integrity, control, and inner-directedness will infuse you with both exhilaration and peace. You will define yourself from within, rather than by people’s opinions or by comparisons to others. ‘Wrong’ and ‘right’ will have little to do with being found out.”
• “Honesty is telling the truth – in other words, conforming our words to reality. Integrity is conforming reality to our words – in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.”
• “Humility is the mother of all virtues: the humble in spirit progress and are blessed because they willingly submit to higher powers and try to live in harmony with natural laws and universal principles. Courage is the father of all virtues; we need great courage to lead our lives by correct principles and to have integrity in the moment of choice.”
• “Wisdom 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.”

Interpersonal Skills

• “A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships.”
• “How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.”
• “I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow.”
• “If you want to have a more pleasant,cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, emphatic, consistent, loving parent.”
• “In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.”
• “Is it logical that two people can disagree and that both can be right? It’s not logical: it’s psychological. And it’s very real.”
• “It’s a fact that more people watch television and get their information that way than read books. I find new technology and new ways of communication very exciting and would like to do more in this field.”
• “Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It’s not what they’re not doing or should be doing that’s the issue. The issue is your own chosen response to the situation and what you should be doing. If you start to think the problem is ‘out there,’ stop yourself. That thought is the problem.”
• “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.”
• “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. They’re either speaking or preparing to speak. They’re filtering everything through their own paradigms, reading their autobiography into other people’s lives.”
• “Nothing is more exciting and bonding in relationships than creating together.”
• “People with a scarcity mentality think there is only so much in the world to go around. It’s as if they see life as a pie. When another person gets a big piece, then they get less. Such people are always trying to get even, to pull others down to their level so they can get an equal or even bigger piece of the pie.”
• “The amateur salesman sells products; the professional sells solutions to needs and problems.”
• “To receive gratitude with grace is a form of gratitude by itself, and not always an easy art to master.”
• “To retain those who are present, be loyal to those who are absent.”
• “To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.”
• “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.”
• “Treat them all the same by treating them differently.”
• “We must not let the actions or words of others determine our responses. Magnanimous people make the choice to respond to the indignities of others based upon their own principles and their own value system rather than their moods or anger.”
• “When air is charged with emotions, an attempt to teach is often perceived as a form of judgment and rejection.”
• “Whether or not we belong to a church or service organization or have a job that provides meaningful service opportunities, not a day goes by that we can’t at least serve one other human being by making deposits of unconditional love.”
• “Words are like eggs dropped from great heights. You could no more call them back then ignore the mess they left when they fell.”
• “You can’t talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into!”

Leadership

• “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”
  “Effective management is putting first things first. While leadership decides what “first things” are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out.”
• “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.”
• “I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a ‘transformer’ in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.”
• “Involve people in the problem and work out the solution together.”
• “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
• “Management works in the system; Leadership works on the system.”
• “Most people think of leadership as a position and therefore don’t see themselves as leaders.”
• “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.”
• “We accomplish all that we do through delegation — either to time or to other people.”
• “Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.”

Personal Development

• “A good affirmation has five basic ingredients: it’s personal, it’s positive, it’s present tense, it’s visual, and it’s emotional.”
• “A transition person is one who breaks the flow of bad – the negative traditions or harmful practices that get passed from generation to generation, or from situation to situation, whether in a family, a workplace, a community, or wherever. Transition persons transcend their own needs and tap into the deepest, most noble impulses of human nature. In times of darkness, they are lights, not judges; models, not critics. In periods of discord, they are change catalysts, not victims; healers, not carriers. Today’s world needs more transition persons. Trust yourself to become one of the best, and watch your influence grow.”
• “Anytime we think the problem is ‘out there,’ that thought is the problem. We empower what’s out there to control us. The change paradigm is ‘outside-in’ – what’s out there has to change before we can change.  The proactive approach is to change from the ‘inside-out’: to be different, and by being different, to effect positive change in what’s out there – I can be more resourceful, I can be more diligent, I can be more creative, I can be more cooperative.”
• “As human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values.”
• “At some time in your life, you probably had someone believe in you when you didn’t believe in yourself.”
• “But borrowing strength builds weakness.”
• “Humility is the mother of all virtues. Humility says we are not in control, principles are in control, therefore we submit ourselves to principles. Pride says that we are in control, and since our values govern our behavior, we can simply do life our way.”
• “If we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.”
• “If you don’t know yourself, if you don’t control yourself, if you don’t have mastery over yourself, it’s very hard to like yourself, except in some short-term, psych-up, superficial way.”
• “If you want to achieve your highest aspirations and overcome your greatest challenges, identify and apply the principle or natural law that governs the results you seek. How we apply a principle will vary greatly and will be determined by our unique strengths, talents, and creativity, but, ultimately, success in any endeavor is always derived from acting in harmony with the principles to which the success is tied.”
• “It is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.”
• “Just as the education of nerve and sinew is vital to the excellent athlete and education of the mind is vital to the scholar, education of the conscience is vital to the truly proactive, highly effective person. Training and educating the conscience, however, requires even greater concentration, more balanced discipline, more consistently honest living. It requires regular feasting on inspiring literature, thinking noble thoughts and, above all, living in harmony with its still small voice.”
• “Once we are self-aware, we must choose purposes and principles to live by; otherwise the vacuum will be filled, and we will lose our self-awareness and become like groveling animals who live primarily for survival and propagation. People who exist on that level aren’t living; they are “being lived.” They are reacting, unaware of the unique endowments that lie dormant and undeveloped within.”
• “Public behavior is merely private character writ large.”
• “Satisfied needs do not motivate. It’s only the unsatisfied need that motivates. Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival – to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.”
• “The ‘Inside-Out’ approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self, with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.”
• “The only person I know, is the person I want to be.”
• “There’s no better way to inform and expand your mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature.”
• “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’.”
• “We are limited but we can push back the borders of our limitations.”
• “We hear a lot about identity theft when someone takes your wallet and pretends to be you and uses your credit cards. But the more serious identity theft is to get swallowed up in other people’s definition of you.”
• “Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we are in control of it or not, there is a first creation to every part of our lives. We are either the second creation of our own proactive design, or we are the second creation of other people’s agendas, of circumstances, or of past habits.”

Perspective

• “As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves.”
• “Being is seeing in the human dimension.”
• “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.”
• “The way we see the problem is the problem.” “To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”
• “Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It’s not logical; it’s psychological.”
• “Until we take how we see ourselves (and how we see others) into account, we will be unable to understand how others see and feel about themselves and their world. Unaware, we will project our intentions on their behavior and call ourselves objective.”
• “We must look at the lens through which we see the world, as well as the world we see, and that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.”
• “We see the world, not as it is, but as we are 
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• Source:sourceofinsight.com