Stephen Covey Quotes

345 Sourced Quotes

The key to the many is often the one; it is how you regard and talk about the one in that one's absence or presence that communicates to the many how you would regard and talk about them in their presence or absence.

Stephen Covey
The principle of fasting is taught in almost all major world religions as a means of developing a higher level of self-mastery and self-control, and also a deeper awareness of how really dependent we are.

Stephen Covey
Be a function of your values rather than a function of the impulse or desire of any given moment.

Stephen Covey
In our own lives, having a mind-set of expecting to win increases our odds of winning. It helps us get better results. And better results help us increase our credibility and self-confidence, which leads to more positive self-expectancy, and more winning - and the upward cycle continues. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Stephen Covey
Sacrifice really means giving up something good for something better.

Stephen Covey
I know it is possible not only to restore trust but to actually enhance it. The difficult things that we got through with the important people in our lives can become fertile ground for the growth of enduring trust - trust that is actually stronger because it's been tested and proved through challenge.

Stephen Covey
Self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions, and our habits and tendencies.

Stephen Covey
The essence of synergy is to value differences-to respect them, to build on strengths, to compensate for weaknesses

Stephen Covey
In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances to shape our lives by default.

Stephen Covey
When we listen with the intent to understand others, rather than with the intent to reply, we begin true communication and relationship building. Opportunities to then speak openly and to be understood come much more naturally and easily.

Stephen Covey
Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust. Nothing is as fulfilling as a relationship of trust. Nothing is as inspiring as an offering of trust. Nothing is as profitable as the economics of trust. Nothing has more influence than a reputation of trust.

Stephen Covey
The great apparent dichotomy is that the more we give, the more we get.

Stephen Covey
One thing's for sure. If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting. One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results.

Stephen Covey
If two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary.... I don't want to talk, to communicate, with someone who agrees with me; I want to communicate with you because you see it differently. I value that difference.

Stephen Covey
People and organizations don't grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses

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

Stephen Covey
The great contributors in life are those who, though afraid of the knock at the door, still answer it.

Stephen Covey
Conscience connects us with the wisdom of the ages and the wisdom of the heart.

Stephen Covey
Would you not agree that relationships are built on trust? Would you not also agree that most individuals think more in terms of "me-my wants, my needs, my rights? What would wisdom dictate - would it not direct us to focus on trust-building principles and sacrificing 'me' for 'we'?"

Stephen Covey
If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other-while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity and insincerity-then, in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do-even using so-called good human relations techniques-will be perceived as manipulative.

Stephen Covey
Self-awareness involves deep personal honesty. It comes from asking and answering hard questions.

Stephen Covey
Inevitably, anytime we are too vulnerable we feel the need to protect ourselves from further wounds. So we resort to sarcasm, cutting humor, criticism - anything that will keep from exposing the tenderness within. Each partner tends to wait on the initiative of the other for love, only to be disappointed but also confirmed as to the rightness of the accusations made.

Stephen Covey
It's not that we ignore our weaknesses; rather, we make our weaknesses irrelevant by working effectively with others so that we compensate for our weaknesses through their strengths and they compensate for their weaknesses through our strengths.

Stephen Covey
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.

Stephen Covey
When a person has access to both the intuitive, creative and visual right brain, and the analytical, logical, verbal left brain, then the whole brain is working...And this tool is best suited to the reality of what life is, because life is not just logical-it is also emotional.

Stephen Covey
The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.

Stephen Covey
Unless you're continually improving your skills, you're quickly becoming irrelevant.

Stephen Covey
Affirm people. Affirm your children. Believe in them, not in what you see but in what you don't see - their potential.

Stephen Covey
The ability to manage well doesn't make much difference if you're not even in the right jungle.

Stephen Covey
Whether you're on a sports team, in an office or a member of a family, if you can't trust one another there's going to be trouble.

Stephen Covey