Top 500 Stephen R. Covey Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “To know and not to do is not to know.”

— Stephen R. Covey

52. “The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.””

— Stephen R. Covey

53. “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

— Stephen R. Covey

54. “Beginners are many; finishers are few.”

— Stephen R. Covey

55. “Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.”

— Stephen R. Covey

56. “Leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it themselves.”

— Stephen R. Covey

57. “The key to success is dedication to life-long learning.”

— Stephen R. Covey

58. “Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.”

— Stephen R. Covey

59. “Highly proactive people don’t blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice.”

— Stephen R. Covey

60. “Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them.”

— Stephen R. Covey

61. “It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”

— Stephen R. Covey

62. “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 R. Covey

63. “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”

— Stephen R. Covey

64. “Difference is the beginning of synergy.”

— Stephen R. Covey

65. “The only thing that endures over time is the ‘Law of the Farm.’ You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water if you expect to reap the harvest.”

— Stephen R. Covey

66. “Free your heart from hatred – forgive. Free your mind from worries – most never happen. Live simply and appreciate what you have. Give more. Expect less.”

— Stephen R. Covey

67. “You can’t hold someone accountable for results if you supervise their methods.”

— Stephen R. Covey

68. “To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”

— Stephen R. Covey

69. “Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world.”

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

71. “The greatest risk is the risk of riskless living.”

— Stephen R. Covey

72. “We can act instead of being acted upon.”

— Stephen R. Covey

73. “Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.”

— Stephen R. Covey

74. “Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people. But it takes time and patience.”

— Stephen R. Covey

75. “Life is a mission, not a career.”

— Stephen R. Covey

76. “Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.”

— Stephen R. Covey

77. “Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves.”

— Stephen R. Covey

78. “Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.”

— Stephen R. Covey

79. “When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.”

— Stephen R. Covey

80. “Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It’s not logical; it’s psychological.”

— Stephen R. Covey

81. “Trust is the highest form of human motivation.”

— Stephen R. Covey

82. “The reality is that everybody makes mistakes. The issue isn’t whether you will make them, it’s what you will do about them. It’s whether you will choose the path of humility and courage or the path of ego and pride.”

— Stephen R. Covey

83. “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 R. Covey

84. “Compliance does not foster innovation, trust does. You can’t sustain long-term innovation, for example, in a climate of distrust.”

— Stephen R. Covey

85. “Make small commitments and keep them. Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.”

— Stephen R. Covey

86. “Once you have a clear picture of your priorities – that is values, goals, and high leverage activities – organize around them.”

— Stephen R. Covey

87. “Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven’t paid the price to decide what is really important to them.”

— Stephen R. Covey

88. “Satisfied needs do not motivate. It’s only the unsatisfied need that motivates. Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival – to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.”

— Stephen R. Covey

89. “The amateur salesman sells products; the professional sells solutions to needs and problems.”

— Stephen R. Covey

90. “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.”

— Stephen R. Covey

91. “Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit, and do on increasingly higher planes. We deceive ourselves if we think that any one of these is sufficient. To keep progressing, we must learn, commit, and do-learn, commit, and do-and learn, commit, and do again.”

— Stephen R. Covey

92. “To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.”

— Stephen R. Covey

93. “Some people achieve the top of the ladder and only then realise it was standing against the wrong wall.”

— Stephen R. Covey

94. “Response-ability is the ABILITY to choose our response to any circumstance or condition.”

— Stephen R. Covey

95. “Your systems are perfectly designed to get the results that you are getting.”

— Stephen R. Covey

96. “Visualising something organises one’s ability to accomplish it.”

— Stephen R. Covey

97. “If you can hire people whose passion intersects with the job, they won’t require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within, not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external.”

— Stephen R. Covey

98. “If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy.”

— Stephen R. Covey

99. “Humility is the mother of all virtues, courage the father, integrity the child and wisdom the grandchild.”

— Stephen R. Covey

100. “Trust is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive and your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, and your track record. Both are vital.”

— Stephen R. Covey