Top 500 Stephen R. Covey Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “Success comes from the ability to view each arising problem as an opportunity for self improvement.”

— Stephen R. Covey

302. “Most people define greatness through wealth and popularity and position in the corner office. But what I call everyday greatness comes from character and contribution.”

— Stephen R. Covey

303. “Link yourself to your potential, not to your past.”

— Stephen R. Covey

304. “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.”

— Stephen R. Covey

305. “When people have a real sense of legacy, a sense of mattering, a sense of contribution, it seems to tap into the deepest part of their heart and soul. It brings out the best and subordinates the rest.”

— Stephen R. Covey

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306. “Over time, I have come to this simple definition of leadership: Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.”

— Stephen R. Covey

307. “We do make a difference – one way or the other. We are responsible for the impact of our lives. Whatever we do with whatever we have, we leave behind us a legacy for those who follow.”

— Stephen R. Covey

308. “Begin each day with the blueprint of my deepest values FIRMLY in mind then when challenges come, make decisions BASED on those values.”

— Stephen R. Covey

309. “When we say that leadership is a choice, it basically means you can choose the level of initiative you want to exercise in response to the question, ‘What is the best I can do under the given circumstances?’”

— Stephen R. Covey

310. “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.”

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

312. “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

313. “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

314. “In the words of Thoreau, “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviors flow.”

— Stephen R. Covey

315. “Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality.”

— Stephen R. Covey

316. “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

317. “Little kindness and courtesies are so important. In relationships, the little things are the big things.”

— Stephen R. Covey

318. “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

319. “It’s better to be trusted than to be liked.”

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

321. “Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.”

— Stephen R. Covey

322. “People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.”

— Stephen R. Covey

323. “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

324. “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.”

— Stephen R. Covey

325. “You can retire from a job, but don’t ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.”

— Stephen R. Covey

326. “The struggle comes when we sense a gap between the clock and the compass – when what we do doesn’t contribute to what is most important in our lives.”

— Stephen R. Covey

327. “You will never be able to truly step inside another person, to see the world as he sees it, until you develop the pure desire, the strength of personal character, and the positive Emotional Bank Account, as well as the empathetic listening skills to do it.”

— Stephen R. Covey

328. “The principle of fasting is taught in almost all major world religions as a means of developing a higher level of self-mastery and self-control, and also a deeper awareness of how really dependent we are.”

— Stephen R. Covey

329. “You basically get what you reward. If you want to achieve the goals and reflect the values in your mission statement, then you need to align the reward system with these goals and values.”

— Stephen R. Covey

330. “In effective personal leadership, visualization and affirmation techniques emerge naturally out of a foundation of well thought through purposes and principles that become the center of a person’s life.”

— Stephen R. Covey

331. “Remember that our reactions are a product of our perceptions, and our perceptions are a result of what is at the center of our life.”

— Stephen R. Covey

332. “A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step” and can only be taken one step at a time.”

— Stephen R. Covey

333. “In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.”

— Stephen R. Covey

334. “The key to creating passion in your life is to find your unique talents, and your special role and purpose in the world.”

— Stephen R. Covey

335. “Principles don’t die. They aren’t here one day and gone the next. They can’t be destroyed by fire, earthquake or theft. Principles are deep, fundamental truths, classic truths.”

— Stephen R. Covey

336. “The only way we can handle change around us is to know what is changeless about ourselves.”

— Stephen R. Covey

337. “I am the creative force of my life.”

— Stephen R. Covey

338. “In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances to shape our lives by default.”

— Stephen R. Covey

339. “If you don’t choose to do it in leadership time up front, you do it in crisis management time down the road.”

— Stephen R. Covey

340. “So often the problem is in the system, not in the people. If you put good people in bad systems, you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow.”

— Stephen R. Covey

341. “Above all, success in business requires two things: a winning competitive strategy, and superb organizational execution. Distrust is the enemy of both. I submit that while high trust won’t necessarily rescue a poor strategy, low trust will almost always derail a good one.”

— Stephen R. Covey

342. “My behavior is a product of my own conscious choices based on principles, rather than a product of my conditions, based on feelings.”

— Stephen R. Covey

343. “You can’t be successful with other people if you haven’t paid the price of success with yourself.”

— Stephen R. Covey

344. “Words are like eggs dropped from great heights. You could no more call them back then ignore the mess they left when they fell.”

— Stephen R. Covey

345. “Anyone can count the seeds of an apple. Who can count the apples in a seed?”

— Stephen R. Covey

346. “Whatever your present situation, I assure you that you are not your habits. You can replace old patterns of self-defeating behavior with new patterns, new habits of the effectiveness, happiness and trust-based relationships.”

— Stephen R. Covey

347. “Principles are the simplicity on the far side of complexity.”

— Stephen R. Covey

348. “Empathy takes time, and efficiency is for things, not people.”

— Stephen R. Covey

349. “To be successful we must live from our imaginations, not from our memories.”

— Stephen R. Covey

350. “Humility is the mother of all virtues. Humility says we are not in control, principles are in control, therefore we submit ourselves to principles. Pride says that we are in control, and since our values govern our behavior, we can simply do life our way.”

— Stephen R. Covey