Top 500 Stephen R. Covey Quotes (2024 Update)
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251. “Being humble does not mean being weak, reticent, or self-effacing. It means recognizing principle and putting it ahead of self. It means standing firmly for principle, even in the fact of opposition.”

— Stephen R. Covey

252. “The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.”

— Stephen R. Covey

253. “We accomplish all that we do through delegation – either to time or to other people.”

— Stephen R. Covey

254. “Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love the verb or our loving actions. So love her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her.”

— Stephen R. Covey

255. “Anything less then a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.”

— Stephen R. Covey

256. “What does it matter how much we do if what we’re doing isn’t what matters most?”

— Stephen R. Covey

257. “We’re often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don’t even realise we’re in the wrong jungle.”

— Stephen R. Covey

258. “The role of the leader is to foster mutual respect and build a complementary team where each strength is made productive and each weakness irrelevant.”

— Stephen R. Covey

259. “The real beginning of influence comes as others sense you are being influenced by them – when they feel understood by you – that you have listened deeply and sincerely, and that you are open.”

— Stephen R. Covey

260. “Perhaps the most important vision of all is develop a sense of self, a sense of your own destiny, a sense of unique mission and role in life.”

— Stephen R. Covey

261. “Effective interdependence can only be built on true independence.”

— Stephen R. Covey

262. “Internal victories precede external victories.”

— Stephen R. Covey

263. “Almost all of the world-class athletes and other peak performers are visualizers. They see it; they feel it; they experience it before hey actually do it. They begin with the end in mind.”

— Stephen R. Covey

264. “People and their managers are working so hard to be sure things are done right, that they have hardly have time to decide if they are doing the right things.”

— Stephen R. Covey

265. “The person who is truly effective has the humility and reverence to recognize his own perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich resources available through interaction with the hearts and minds of other human beings.”

— Stephen R. Covey

266. “The key to motivation is motive.”

— Stephen R. Covey

267. “You can’t talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into!”

— Stephen R. Covey

268. “Trust is the glue that holds everything together. It creates the environment in which all of the other elements win-win stewardship agreements, self-directing individuals and teams, aligned structures and systems, and accountability can flourish.”

— Stephen R. Covey

269. “It’s not what people do to us that hurts us. In the most fundamental sense, it is our chosen response to what they do to us that hurts us.”

— Stephen R. Covey

270. “One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present.”

— Stephen R. Covey

271. “Petty things become unimportant when people are impassioned about a purpose higher than self.”

— Stephen R. Covey

272. “Effective leadership is the only competitive advantage that will endure. That’s because leadership has two sides- what a person is character and what a person does- competence.”

— Stephen R. Covey

273. “In many situations involving service recovery – the problem itself became the catalyst for the creation of even greater trust as the companies took the issues head-on and worked through the difficult problem in a way that restored confidence.”

— Stephen R. Covey

274. “You can say you love someone – but unless you demonstrate that love through your actions, your words become meaningless.”

— Stephen R. Covey

275. “It is possible to be busy-very busy-without being very effective.”

— Stephen R. Covey

276. “None of us see the world as it is but as we are, as our frames of reference, or maps, define the territory.”

— Stephen R. Covey

277. “True independence of character empowers us to act rather than be acted upon.”

— Stephen R. Covey

278. “Be governed by your internal compass, not by some clock on the wall.”

— Stephen R. Covey

279. “Involve people in the problem and work out the solution together.”

— Stephen R. Covey

280. “Make specific appointments with yourself to work on goals, and treat an appointment with yourself as you’d treat an appointment with anybody else.”

— Stephen R. Covey

281. “Through imagination, we can visualize the uncredited worlds of potential that lie within us.”

— Stephen R. Covey

282. “When we succumb to believing that we are victims of our circumstances and yield to the plight of determinism, we lose hope, we lose drive, and we settle into resignation and stagnation.”

— Stephen R. Covey

283. “Writing distills, crystallizes, and clarifies thought.”

— Stephen R. Covey

284. “The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.”

— Stephen R. Covey

285. “Will we act upon life, or will we merely be acted upon?”

— Stephen R. Covey

286. “A long, healthy, and happy life is the result of making contributions, of having meaningful projects that are personally exciting and contribute to and bless the lives of others.”

— Stephen R. Covey

287. “The fire inside people is like a match; the way to ignite that flame is initially through friction, then other matches are lit through warmth.”

— Stephen R. Covey

288. “Frustration is a function of our expectations, and our expectations are often a reflection of the social mirror rather than our own values and priorities.”

— Stephen R. Covey

289. “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.”

— Stephen R. Covey

290. “Principles are natural laws that are external to us and that ultimately control the consequences of our actions. Values are internal and subjective and represent that which we feel strongest about in guiding our behavior.”

— Stephen R. Covey

291. “We are product of neither nature nor nurture; we are a product of choice, because there is always a space between stimulus and response. As we wisely exercise our power to choose based on principles, the space will become larger.”

— Stephen R. Covey

292. “The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.”

— Stephen R. Covey

293. “The reflection of the current social paradigm tells us we are largely determined by conditioning and conditions.”

— Stephen R. Covey

294. “Values determine behavior; Principles determine the consequences of behavior.”

— Stephen R. Covey

295. “As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves.”

— Stephen R. Covey

296. “Keep in mind that you are always saying “no” to something. If it isn’t to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.”

— Stephen R. Covey

297. “Be sure that, as you scramble up the ladder of success, it is leaning against the right building.”

— Stephen R. Covey

298. “See every problem as an opportunity to exercise creative energy.”

— Stephen R. Covey

299. “Treat them all the same by treating them differently.”

— Stephen R. Covey

300. “Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms.”

— Stephen R. Covey