Quotessence
Home / Authors / Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfs7 HabitsPrinciplesMotivationalValuesWayInspirationalMindSelfThinkingCharacterImportantManagementVisionPersonsWantHumansLifeChange

Famous Stephen Covey Quotes

“Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.”

PeopleEffortTeamAchieveBuildingDevelopmentDevelopingWorking TogetherTeamworkCooperationTeam BuildingInterdependenceGreat TeamTeamwBuilding A TeamGreatest SuccessCooperation Teamwork7 HabitsGreat EffortCooperation And TeamworkLeadership TeamworkTeam GoalTeam EffortGreat TeamworkTeam LeadershipTeamwork And LeadershipGreat Team BuildingTeam LeaderTeam SuccessEffort And SuccessTeam BondingTeamwork Success
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition
Create image

“Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.”

PeopleValuesDifferencesTeamEmotionalActivityConflictHighestPsychologicalAlternativesWorking TogetherTeamworkCollaborationCooperationConsensusExploitsTeam BuildingTeam WorkSynergyTeamwTeam WorkingBuilding A TeamCooperation TeamworkInspirational TeamworkCooperation And TeamworkInspirational Team BuildingTeamwork In EducationTeam Building Inspiration
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image

“As you live your values, your sense of identity, integrity, control, and inner-directedness will infuse you with both exhilaration and peace. You will define yourself from within, rather than by people's opinions or by comparisons to others.”

PeopleCharacterValuesOpinionIdentityIntegrityComparisonExhilarationDefine Yourself
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
Create image

“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.”

PeopleBelieveCharacterBeliefI BelievePrinciplesTeachEthicsFoundationEndureIntegratingBasic PrinciplesTrue Success
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
Create image

“Character grows in the soil of experience with the fertilization of example, the moisture of ambition, and the sunshine of satisfaction. Character cannot be purchased, bargained for, inherited, rented or imported from afar. It must be home-grown. Purely intellectual development without commensurate internal character development makes as much sense as putting a high-powered sports car in the hands of a teenager who is high on drugs. Yet all too often in the academic world, that's exactly what we do by not focusing on the character development of young people.”

PeopleWorldCharacterHomeHandsYoungGrowsSportsCarExampleDevelopmentDrugAmbitionIntellectualSatisfactionTeenagerSoilInternalsSunshineAcademicCharacter DevelopmentAfarMoistureSports CarsIntellectual DevelopmentFertilization
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image

“The personal power that comes from principle-centered living is the power of a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, unrestricted by the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of others or by many of the circumstances and environmental influences that limit other people.”

PeopleInspirationalSelfActionIndividualAttitudePrinciplesInfluenceCircumstancesLimitsBehaviorEnvironmentalKnowledgeablePersonal PowerProactiveEnvironmental Influences
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook
Create image

“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.”

PeopleLittlesParentFreedomActingWrittenMomExerciseScriptsAssociatesActing Out
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
Create image

“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.”

PeopleWayFeelingsWinningLosesEmotionQualityHigherIllnessDisappointmentRageMentalityResentmentCynicismMinorsReincarnationEmbodimentDisillusionmentRepressedProvocationTranscendingCumulativeRelationships With OthersOverreactionDeep Disappointment
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
Create image

“People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me. The more principle-centered we become, the more we develop an abundance mentality, the more we are genuinely happy for the successes, well-being, achievements, recognition, and good fortune of other people. We believe their success adds to...rather than detracts from...our lives.”

PeopleIfsBelieveWellsMeanWinningTermLosesPrinciplesOur LivesAchievementAddFortuneRecognitionWell BeingAbundanceMentalityGood FortuneScarcityWinning LosingAbundance Mentality
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image

“Look at the word responsibility-"response-ability"-the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.”

PeopleLooksFeelingsValuesChoicesAbilityResponsibilityConditionsProductsCircumstancesBehaviorConsciousBlameResponseConditioningProactiveAbility To Choose
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Create image

“If you were to fault yourself in one of three areas, which would it be: (1) the inability to prioritize; (2) the inability or desire to organize around those priorities; or (3) the lack of discipline to execute around them? ... Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe that is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds. They haven't really internalized Habit 2 [Begin with the end in mind].”

PeopleIfsInspirationalMindBelieveHeartEndsProblemDesireThreeI BelieveCasesHavensHabitDisciplineAreasFaultsDeeperPrioritiesOrganizeHeart And MindInabilityPrioritize
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image

“I'm convinced that we can write and live our own scripts more than most people will acknowledge. I also know the price that must be paid. It's a real struggle to do it. It requires visualization and affirmation. It involves living a life of integrity, starting with making and keeping promises, until the whole human personality the senses, the thinking, the feeling, and the intuition are ultimately integrated and harmonized.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWritingHumansRealWholeFeelingsGoalStrugglePersonalityIntegrityPromiseCommitmentPaidStartingScriptsIntuitionConvincedSensesAcknowledgeFree WillAffirmationSelf DevelopmentIntegratedVisualizationHuman PersonalityKeeping Promises
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image

“People who end up with the good jobs are the proactive ones who are solutions to problems, not problems themselves, who seize the initiative to do whatever is necessary to get the job done.”

PeopleEndsDoneProblemActionJobsSolutionsInitiativeGood JobProactiveSolution To A ProblemGet The Job Done
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
Create image

“Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they aren't important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II...Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management.”

PeopleInspirationalHeartImportantManagementSizeSpendingMore TimeShrinksUrgent
Book:The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader - 4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned Leadership Teacher of our Time
Create image

“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.”

PeopleWaySpiritCreativeSecurityAdventureEnormousOpennessConsistentlyEfficiencyEffectivenessSynergySpirit Of AdventurePersonal Security
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
Create image

“The more deeply you understand other people, the more you will appreciate them, the more reverent you will feel about them. To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.”

PeopleFeelsHumansSoulHuman BeingsWalksHolyEmpathyAppreciateHoly Ground
Book:The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader - 4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned Leadership Teacher of our Time
Create image

“The more authentic you become, the more genuine in your expression, particularly regarding personal experiences and even self-doubts, the more people can relate to your expression and the safer it makes them feel to express themselves. That expression, in turn, feeds on the other person's spirit, and genuine creative empathy takes place, producing new insights and learnings and a sense of excitement and adventure that keeps the process going.”

PeopleFeelsPersonsSelfSpiritTurnsProcessCreativeDoubtAdventureExpressionEmpathyInsightGenuineRelateExcitementPersonal ExperiencesSelf-doubt
Book:The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader - 4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned Leadership Teacher of our Time
Create image

“Empathic listening takes time, but it doesn't take anywhere near as much time as it takes to back up and correct misunderstandings when you're already miles down the road; to redo; to live with unexpressed and unsolved problems; to deal with the results of not giving people psychological air.”

PeopleGivingProblemResultsDealsAirListeningEmpathyMilesPsychologicalTake TimeMisunderstandingDown The RoadUnsolved ProblemsRedos
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Create image

“The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values - carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.”

PeoplePersonsFeelingsValuesAbilityVisionEnvironmentConditionsCircumstancesEssenceDrivenImpulseSubordinatesSelectedProactive7 Habits
Book:The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader - 4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned Leadership Teacher of our Time
Create image

“At the core, there is one simple, overarching reason why so many people remain unsatisfied in their work and why most organisations fail to draw out the greatest talent, ingenuity, and creativity of their people and never become truly great, enduring organisations. It stems from an incomplete paradigm of who we are - our fundamental view of human nature. The fundamental reality is, human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four-dimensional - body, mind, heart, and spirit.”

PeopleMindHumansHeartReasonBodyRealitySpiritHuman BeingsSimpleViewsCreativityFourFailingTalentHuman NatureDrawsFundamentalsEndureCoreReason WhyWho We AreControlledMotivatedStemParadigmIncompleteOrganisationIngenuityUnsatisfiedMind Heart
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image

“We may find it convenient to live with the illusion that circumstances or other people are responsible for the quality of our lives, but the reality is that we are responsible-response-able-for our choices.”

PeopleMayRealityAbleChoicesQualityOur LivesCircumstancesIllusionResponsibleResponseConvenientOur Choices
Book:First Things First Every Day: Daily Reflections- Because Where You're Headed Is More Important Than How Fast You Get There
Create image

“All things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default.”

PeopleIfsWantFirstsDreamEffortCreationBuildingCircumstancesShapesConsciousAll ThingsWho You AreWhat You WantEmpoweringDefaultBlueprints
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image

“Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe this is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds.”

PeopleMindBelieveHeartProblemI BelieveLeadershipCasesDisciplineManagementFaultsDeeperPrioritiesTime ManagementHeart And MindPrioritize
Book:The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader - 4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned Leadership Teacher of our Time
Create image

“Many people think in terms of either/or: either you're nice or you're tough. Win-win requires that you be both. It is a balancing act between courage and consideration. To go for win-win, you not only have to be empathic, but you also have to be confident. You not only have to be considerate and sensitive, you also have to be brave. To do that-to achieve that balance between courage and consideration-is the essence of real maturity and is fundamental to win-win.”

PeopleThinkingRealWinningTermNiceAchieveBalanceToughEssenceFundamentalsBraveMaturitySensitiveConsiderationBe BraveBe ConfidentConsiderateWin WinEither OrBe ConsiderateBalancing Act
Author:Stephen Covey
Create image