Top 500 Stephen R. Covey Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 7 of 10

301. “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

302. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

304. “If the only vision we have of ourselves comes from the social mirror – from the current social paradigm and from the opinions, perceptions, and paradigms of the people around us – our view of ourselves is like the reflection in a crazy mirror room at the carnival.”

— Stephen R. Covey

305. “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

306. “As human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values.”

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

308. “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

309. “Creating and integrating an empowering personal mission statement is one of the most important investments we can make.”

— Stephen R. Covey

310. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

314. “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

315. “An empowering mission statement has to become a living document, part of our very nature, so that the criteria we’ve put into it are also in us, in the way we live our lives day by day.”

— Stephen R. Covey

316. “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

317. “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

318. “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

319. “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

320. “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

321. “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

322. “T. S. Eliot’s observation: We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.”

— Stephen R. Covey

323. “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

324. “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

325. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

327. “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

328. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

331. “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

332. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

334. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

336. “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

337. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

339. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

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

— Stephen R. Covey

344. “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

345. “The bottom line is, when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities, not only are they many times more productive, they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.”

— Stephen R. Covey

346. “Whenever you experience stress of any kind, look into yourself and ask, In what way am I compromising my innermost values in this situation?”

— Stephen R. Covey

347. “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

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

— Stephen R. Covey

349. “Conscience connects us with the wisdom of the ages and the wisdom of the heart.”

— Stephen R. Covey

350. “Empathy is not sympathy. A sympathy is a form of agreement. Empathy is not agreeing with someone; it is fully, deeply understanding that person, emotionally as well as intellectually.”

— Stephen R. Covey