Stephen Covey Quotes

There is no future in a job. The only future is inside oneself. We look inside rather than outside. We become producer rather than consumers of other peoples’ production.

~ Stephen Covey

The great obstacle to communication is the tendency to constantly evaluate or moralize with others, creating in them a fear to speak or act. The great key to this communication is to learn to listen attentively with understanding to the other person’s point of view creating an atmosphere of love and approval.

~ Stephen Covey

Very few people have ever experienced the feeling of being completely understood. When they experience it, it can become one of the richest feelings they have ever had.

~ Stephen Covey

It is unpleasant and disturbing to be rejected. It is deeply satisfying to be accepted.

~ Stephen Covey

To carefully listen is a powerful way of saying to another that we value that person. When we take the time to understand we communicate that we care, we want to understand, we respect their expression, we give dignity and an individual sense of worth. Communication lies more in feeling than in words.

~ Stephen Covey

We can actually live out the trials and temptations of the day before they come. We can in prayer deal with all our unrighteous aspirations, selfishness, perverse inclinations, impatience, anger, procrastination. This is a form of spiritual creation.

~ Stephen Covey

Our problems don’t stem from our ignorance so much as our disobedience of that which we know to be right.

~ Stephen Covey

I must change in order to change the world. The only revolution with any permanent value takes part in the breast of the individual person.

~ Stephen Covey

Too many are trying to conquer higher weaknesses such as procrastination, impatience or pride while still being slaves to their appetites. If we can’t control the body and its appetites, how can we control our tongues, or overcome the emotions or anger, envy, jealousy, or hatred?

~ Stephen Covey

Your ability to get along with others flows naturally from how well you are getting along with yourself from your own internal peace and harmony which is itself a function of your peace and harmony with God and your family.

~ Stephen Covey

Trust is the glue of life.

~ Stephen Covey

So also in a marriage or in helping a teenager through a difficult identity crisis—there is no quick fix, where you can just move in and make everything right with a positive mental attitude and a bunch of success formulas.

~ Stephen Covey

If there's one thing that's certain in business, it's uncertainty.

~ Stephen Covey

Employers and business leaders need people who can think for themselves - who can take initiative and be the solution to problems.

~ Stephen Covey

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.

~ Stephen Covey

If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.

~ Stephen Covey

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

~ Stephen Covey

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.

~ Stephen Covey

In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

~ Stephen Covey

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.

~ Stephen Covey

The bottom line is, when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities, not only are they many times more productive, they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.

~ Stephen Covey

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.

~ Stephen Covey

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

~ Stephen Covey

When it comes to developing character strength, inner security and unique personal and interpersonal talents and skills in a child, no institution can or ever will compare with, or effectively substitute for, the home's potential for positive influence.

~ Stephen Covey

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

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.

~ Stephen Covey

It's amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

~ Stephen Covey

We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.

~ Stephen Covey

An empowered organisation is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organisational success.

~ Stephen Covey

When we value correct principles, we have truth - a knowledge of things as they are.

~ Stephen Covey

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

~ Stephen Covey

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

~ Stephen Covey

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It's the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

~ Stephen Covey

When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That's when you can get more creative in solving problems.

~ Stephen Covey

Trust is central to an economy that works.

~ Stephen Covey

Despite all our gains in technology, product innovation and world markets, most people are not thriving in the organizations they work for.

~ Stephen Covey

In school, many of us procrastinate and then successfully cram for tests. We get the grades and degrees we need to get the jobs we want, even if we fail to get a good general education.

~ Stephen Covey

There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles.

~ Stephen Covey

When one side benefits more than the other, that's a win-lose situation. To the winner it might look like success for a while, but in the long run, it breeds resentment and distrust.

~ Stephen Covey