Famous Stephen Covey Quotations

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"We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey."
by Stephen Covey
"The character ethic, which I believe to be the foundation of success, teaches that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character."
by Stephen R. Covey
"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."
by Stephen R. Covey
"An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success."
by Stephen R. Covey
"As people enable themselves to achieve one or two goals for the year that are most meaningful, they will find power, peace of mind, and confidence in their abilities because they have achieved what they set out to accomplish. Your commitment to achieving what matters most will become the foundation for tremendous accomplishments and contributions. You will become the change you seek to make."
by Stephen R. Covey
"Between stimulus and response, one has the freedom to choose."
by Stephen R. Covey
"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."
by Stephen R. Covey
"Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things."
by Stephen Covey
"Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out."
by Stephen Covey
"Every exaggeration of the truth once detected by others destroys our credibility and makes all that we do and say suspect."
by Stephen Covey
"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."
by Stephen R. Covey
"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."
by Stephen Covey
"If there is no gardener there is no garden."
by Stephen R. Covey
"If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting."
by Stephen Covey
"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
by Stephen Covey
"Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition - such as lifting weights - we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity."
by Stephen R. Covey
"Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones."
by Stephen Covey
"The way we see the problem is the problem."
by Stephen R. Covey
"The way we see the problem is the problem"
by Stephen R. Covey
"There are certain things that are fundamental to human fulfillment. The essence of these needs is captured in the phrase 'to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy'. The need to live is our physical need for such things as food, clothing, shelter, economical well-being, health. The need to love is our social need to relate to other people, to belong, to love and to be loved. The need to learn is our mental need to develop and to grow. And the need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution"
by Stephen R. Covey
"We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us."
by Stephen Covey
"When you listen with empathy to another person, you give that person psychological air."
by Stephen R. Covey
"While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions."
by Stephen Covey
"Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character"
by Stephen Covey
"In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment-independent will-that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day."
by Stephen Covey
"Lose/Win people bury a lot of feelings. And unexpressed feelings come forth later in uglier ways. Psychosomatic illnesses often are the reincarnation of cumulative resentment, deep disappointment and disillusionment repressed by the Lose/Win mentality. Disproportionate rage or anger, overreaction to minor provocation, and cynicism are other embodiments of suppressed emotion. People who are constantly repressing, not transcending feelings toward a higher meaning find that it affects the quality of their relationships with others."
by Stephen Covey
"People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally being lived. They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates and society."
by Stephen Covey
"Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us."
by Stephen Covey
"Live out of your imagination, not your history.—Stephen Covey"
by Anonymous
"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."
by Stephen Covey
"The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."
by Stephen Covey
"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."
by Stephen Covey
"It is in the ordinary events of every day that we develop the proactive capacity to handle the extraordinary pressures of life. It"
by Stephen Covey
"You can't live principals you can't understand."
by Stephen Covey
"It's easy to say no! when there's a deeper yes! burning inside."
by Stephen Covey
"Accountability breeds response-ability."
by Stephen Covey
"Security represents your sense of worth, your identity, your emotional anchorage, your self-esteem, your basic personal strength or lack of it."
by Stephen Covey
"Priority is a function of context."
by Stephen Covey
"The mission of life: Live; Love; Learn; Leave a Legacy."
by Stephen D. Covey


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