Top 500 Stephen R. Covey Quotes (2025 Update)
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451. “Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.”

— Stephen R. Covey

452. “It is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.”

— Stephen R. Covey

453. “If you say to one flower, ‘Grow,’ but you water another, the first one won’t grow.”

— Stephen R. Covey

454. “Only 20 percent of employees working in large organizations surveyed feel their strengths are in play every day. Thus, eight our of ten employees surveyed feel somewhat miscast in their role.”

— Stephen R. Covey

455. “The great apparent dichotomy is that the more we give, the more we get.”

— Stephen R. Covey

456. “Principles are the basis for developing a vision and value system for all.”

— Stephen R. Covey

457. “The highest challenge inside organizations is to enable each person to contribute his or her unique talents and passion to accomplish the organization’s purpose.”

— Stephen R. Covey

458. “Brands need to reinvent themselves from time to time to stay relevant.”

— Stephen R. Covey

459. “The world has entered an era of the most profound and challenging change in human history.”

— Stephen R. Covey

460. “If we overcome the pull and “get up and get at it,” we will have won a victory. We have kept our own resolve. We can then move to other things, for by small means great things are accomplished. Thus, even this one small step is also in another sense a giant leap.”

— Stephen R. Covey

461. “By centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered to the task of creating effective useful and peaceful lives.”

— Stephen R. Covey

462. “One of the best ways to educate our hearts is to look at our interaction with other people, because our relationships with others are fundamentally a reflection of our relationship with ourselves.”

— Stephen R. Covey

463. “Suddenly I saw things differently, and because I saw differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently.”

— Stephen R. Covey

464. “When our honor becomes greater than our moods, that is where transformation happens.”

— Stephen R. Covey

465. “Perhaps a sense of possessing needs to come to come before a sense of genuine sharing.”

— Stephen R. Covey

466. “Everyone has values; even criminal gangs have values. Values govern people’s behavior but principles govern the consequences of those behaviors.”

— Stephen R. Covey

467. “To judge individuals before understanding them is a form of human rejection and feeds upon itself.”

— Stephen R. Covey

468. “Trust is central to an economy that works.”

— Stephen R. Covey

469. “When air is charged with emotions, an attempt to teach is often perceived as a form of judgment and rejection.”

— Stephen R. Covey

470. “I try to exercise regularly every day, if I can. It renews you and it gives you more balance in your life. This is a key leverage point.”

— Stephen R. Covey

471. “If we do not teach our children, societ will. And they-and we-will live with the results.”

— Stephen R. Covey

472. “Consult the wisdom of your heart as well as your mind.”

— Stephen R. Covey

473. “It comes from within.”

— Stephen R. Covey

474. “Peace of counscious is greater than peace of mind. Peace of mind is more externally oriented. Peace of consciousness is when you know you have been honest in all your business dealings.”

— Stephen R. Covey

475. “Did you ever consider how ridiculous it would be to try to cram on a farm – to forget to plant in the spring, play all summer and then cram in the fall to bring in the harvest? The farm is a natural system. The price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut.”

— Stephen R. Covey

476. “It’s not enough to dream. It’s not enough to try. It’s not enough to set goals or climb ladders. It’s not enough to value. The effort has to be based on practical realities that produce the result. Only then can we dream, set goals, and work to achieve them with confidence.”

— Stephen R. Covey

477. “Management is clearly different from leadership. Leadership is primarily a high-powered, right-brain activity. It’s more of an art it’s based on a philosophy. You have to ask the ultimate questions of life when you’re dealing with personal leadership issues.”

— Stephen R. Covey

478. “It is our willing permission, our consent to what happens to us, that hurts us far more than what happens to us in the first place.”

— Stephen R. Covey

479. “Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.”

— Stephen R. Covey

480. “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 R. Covey

481. “Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.”

— Stephen R. Covey

482. “Actually I did not invent the seven habits, they are universal principles and most of what I wrote about is just common sense. I am embarrassed when people talk about the Covey Habits, and dislike the idea of being some sort of guru.”

— Stephen R. Covey

483. “Before a performance, a sales presentation, a difficult confrontation, or the daily challenge of meeting a goal, see it clearly, vividly, relentlessly, over and over again. Create an internal “comfort zone”. Then, when you get into the situation, it isn’t foreign. It doesn’t scare you.”

— Stephen R. Covey

484. “Attending church does not necessarily mean living the principles taught in those meeting. You can be active in a church but inactive in its gospel.”

— Stephen R. Covey

485. “Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education. Thoreau taught, “How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time?”

— Stephen R. Covey

486. “Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences.”

— Stephen R. Covey

487. “Independent will is our capacity to act. It gives us the power to transcend our paradigms, to swim upstream, to rewrite our scripts, to act based on principle rather than reacting based on emotion or circumstance.”

— Stephen R. Covey

488. “Empathic listening is also risky. It takes a great deal of security to go into a deep listening experience because you open yourself up to be influenced. You become vulnerable. It’s a paradox, in a sense, because in order to have influence, you have to be influenced. That means you have to really understand.”

— Stephen R. Covey

489. “We value the clock for its speed and efficiency. The clock has its place, efficiency has its place, after effectiveness. The symbol of effectiveness is the compass a sense of direction, purpose, vision, perspective, and balance. But the empowerment process itself is not efficient.”

— Stephen R. Covey

490. “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 R. Covey

491. “It’s sometimes a painful process. It’s a change that has to be motivated by a higher purpose, by the willingness to subordinate what you think you want now for what you want later.”

— Stephen R. Covey

492. “The children of blame are cynicism and hopelessness.”

— Stephen R. Covey

493. “My temptation is emotional, and resisting will further my needed weight loss and strengthen my character. Furthermore, nothing tastes as good as thin feels.”

— Stephen R. Covey

494. “When your happiness comes primarily from the happiness of others, you know you have moved from a ‘me’ experience to a ‘we’ experience. And the whole problem-solving and opportunity-seizing process changes.”

— Stephen R. Covey

495. “What difference would a clear vision of my principles, values, and ultimate objectives make in the way I spend my time?”

— Stephen R. Covey

496. “In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”

— Stephen R. Covey

497. “When I started teaching I realized that I had never had such a level of satisfaction and such a feeling of fulfillment and sense of contribution. Just like that. But, usually it’s more cumulative, slow, evolutionary and less revolutionary.”

— Stephen R. Covey

498. “IF you were to pause and think seriously about the “first things” in your life – the three or four things that matter most – what would they be?”

— Stephen R. Covey

499. “How Many People on Their Deathbed Wish They’d Spent More Time at the Office?”

— Stephen R. Covey

500. “Urgency addiction is a self-destructive behavior that temporarily fills the void created by unmet needs. And instead of meeting these needs, the tools and approaches of time management often feed the addiction. They keep us focused on daily prioritization of the urgent.”

— Stephen R. Covey