Stephen R. Covey Quotations

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.

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 accomplish all that we do through delegation -- either to time or to other people.

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.

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.

Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We cansubordinate feelings to values.

It doesn't matter where you're coming from? all that matters is where you aregoing. You can't talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage--pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically--to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside. The enemy of the 'best' is often the 'good.'

Win win agreements are tremendously liberating. But as the product of isolatedtechniques, they won't hold up. Even if you set them up in the beginning, there isno way to maintain them without personal integrity and a relationship of trust.

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

(With people) if you want to save time, dont be efficient. With people, slow isfast and fast is slow.

While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.

To judge individuals before understanding them is a form of human rejection andfeeds upon itself.

Between stimulus and response, one has the freedom to choose.

Between stimulus and response is our greatest power - the freedom to choose

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.

Seek first to understand and then to be understood.

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.

Once you have a clear picture of your priorities that is values, goals, and highleverage activities organize around them.

The noise of urgency creates an illusion of importance

Synergy: The combined effect of individuals in collaboration that exceeds thesum of their individual effects.

Synergy is almost as if a group collectively agrees to subordinate old scripts andto write a new one.

It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the business of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall.

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.

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.

You can't talk your way out of what you've behaved yourself into.

The character traits most critical to creating empowerment are: Integrity habitsare congruent with values, words with deeds, expressions with feelings. Maturitycourage balanced with consideration. Abundance mentality there is plenty outthere for everybody. A person with these character traits can be genuinely happyfor the success and accomplishments of others.