Quotes from Stephen R. Covey

My mission is to live with integrity and to make a difference in the lives of others.

Effective people lead their lives and manage their relationships around principles; ineffective people attempt to manage their time around priorities and their tasks around goals. Think effectiveness with people; efficiency with things.

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.

Many families are managed on the basis of crises, moods, quick fixes, and instant gratification—not on sound principles. Symptoms surface whenever stress and pressure mount: people become cynical, critical, or silent or they start yelling and overreacting. Children who observe these kinds of behavior grow up thinking the only way to solve problems is flight or fight.

Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people. But it takes time and patience, and it doesn't preclude the necessity to train and develop people so that their competency can rise to the level of that trust.

Involve people in the problem and work out the solution together.

For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.

It is character that communicates most eloquently...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.

Our problems and pain are universal and increasing, and the solutions to the problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history.

what is most personal ,is most general.

When we talk about time management, it seems ridiculous to worry about speed before direction, about saving minutes when we may be wasting years.

You can't be successful with other people if you haven't paid the price of success with yourself.

The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity.

We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviors flow.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

In the midst of the most degrading circumstances imaginable, Frankl used the human endowment of self-awareness to discover a fundamental principle about the nature of man: Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.

And to change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.

My friend, love is a verb. Love—the feeling—is a fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Serve her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are you willing to do that?

If our feelings control our actions, it is because we have abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so.

Doing the right things for the right reason in the right way is the key to Quality of Life!

But the underlying chronic condition remains, and eventually new acute symptoms will appear. The more people are into quick fix and focus on the acute problems and pain, the more that very approach contributes to the underlying chronic condition. The way we see the problem is the problem.