Top 500 Stephen R. Covey Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 3 of 10

101. “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

102. “A personal mission statement becomes the DNA for every other decision we make.”

— Stephen R. Covey

103. “Where there’s no gardener, there’s no garden.”

— Stephen R. Covey

104. “When you engage in a work that taps your talent and fuels your passion-that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet-therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code.”

— Stephen R. Covey

105. “The ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust is the key professional and personal competency of our time.”

— Stephen R. Covey

106. “People are your most valuable asset. Only people can be made to appreciate in value.”

— Stephen R. Covey

107. “Be proactive. Ask yourself, “Are my actions based on self-chosen values or on my moods, feelings and circumstances?””

— Stephen R. Covey

108. “Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.”

— Stephen R. Covey

109. “We are free to choose our response in any situation, but in doing so we chose the attendant consequence. If we pick up one end of the stick, we pick up the other.”

— Stephen R. Covey

110. “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”

— Stephen R. Covey

111. “Role modeling is the most basic responsibility of parents. Parents are handing life’s scripts to their children, scripts that in all likelihood will be acted out for the rest of the children’s lives.”

— Stephen R. Covey

112. “To Retain those who are present, be loyal to those who are absent.”

— Stephen R. Covey

113. “The environment you fashion out of your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideals, your philosophy is the only climate you will ever live in. The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”

— Stephen R. Covey

114. “Synergy: The combined effect of individuals in collaboration that exceeds the sum of their individual effects.”

— Stephen R. Covey

115. “We not not our feelings. We are not our moods. We not even our thoughts.”

— Stephen R. Covey

116. “It doesn’t really matter how fast you’re going if you’re heading in the wrong direction.”

— Stephen R. Covey

117. “What is common sense isn’t common practice.”

— Stephen R. Covey

118. “To listen with empathy is the most important human skill.”

— Stephen R. Covey

119. “Find your voice, and inspire others to find theirs. Don’t ignore that longing to make a difference.”

— Stephen R. Covey

120. “Private victories precede public victories. You can’t invert that process any more than you can harvest a crop before you plant it.”

— Stephen R. Covey

121. “The greatest and most inspiring mountain climbing achievements in history are not so much stories of individual achievement, but are stories of the extraordinary power of a unified, talented, prepared team that stays loyally committed to one another and to their shared vision to the end.”

— Stephen R. Covey

122. “When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen.”

— Stephen R. Covey

123. “All the well-meaning advice in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if we’re not even addressing the real problem.”

— Stephen R. Covey

124. “Organize and execute around priorities.”

— Stephen R. Covey

125. “The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it. This literally turns a failure into a success.”

— Stephen R. Covey

126. “There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.”

— Stephen R. Covey

127. “Unless you’re continually improving your skills, you’re quickly becoming irrelevant.”

— Stephen R. Covey

128. “Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.”

— Stephen R. Covey

129. “All things are created twice; first mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result.”

— Stephen R. Covey

130. “Results matter! They matter to your credibility.”

— Stephen R. Covey

131. “The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”

— Stephen R. Covey

132. “An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.”

— Stephen R. Covey

133. “Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual phrased, it, “like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic”.”

— Stephen R. Covey

134. “Do what is important, not what is urgent.”

— Stephen R. Covey

135. “Your power to choose your direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation.”

— Stephen R. Covey

136. “You don’t see the world as it is, you see it according to who you are.”

— Stephen R. Covey

137. “Feedback often tells you more about the person who is giving it than about you.”

— Stephen R. Covey

138. “Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationships with others.”

— Stephen R. Covey

139. “Before you wonder “Am I doing things right?” wonder “Am I doing the right things?””

— Stephen R. Covey

140. “Leaders are not born or made – they are self made.”

— Stephen R. Covey

141. “Passion is the fire, enthusiasm and courage that an individual feels when she is doing something she loves while accomplishing worthy ends, something that satisfies her deepest needs.”

— Stephen R. Covey

142. “Sacrifice really means giving up something good for something better.”

— Stephen R. Covey

143. “The place to begin building any relationship is inside ourselves, inside our circle of influence, our own character.”

— Stephen R. Covey

144. “Live simply and appreciate what you have. Give more. Expect less.”

— Stephen R. Covey

145. “Trust is the one thing that affects everything else you’re doing. It’s a performance multiplier which takes your trajectory upwards, for every activity you engage in, from strategy to execution.”

— Stephen R. Covey

146. “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”

— Stephen R. Covey

147. “When we listen with the intent to understand others, rather than with the intent to reply, we begin true communication and relationship building. Opportunities to then speak openly and to be understood come much more naturally and easily.”

— Stephen R. Covey

148. “People are social beings and want interaction and social learning is the primary form of learning, just as word of mouth advertising is the highest form of advertising.”

— Stephen R. Covey

149. “Being is seeing in the human dimension.”

— Stephen R. Covey

150. “You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things.”

— Stephen R. Covey