Stephen R. Covey

“When man created the mirror, he began to lose his soul. He became more concerned with his image than with his self.”

“When all you want is a person's body and you don't really want their mind, heart or spirit, you have reduced a person to a thing.”

“You can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is. You can buy his back, but you can't buy his brain. That's where his creativity is, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness.”

“Consequences are governed by principles, and behavior is governed by values, therefore, value principles!”

“Doing the right things for the right reason in the right way is the key to Quality of Life!”

“If I am intellectually interdependent, I realize that I need the best thinking of other people to join with my own.”

“Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and actinterdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players”

“Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make”

“Principles are the territory. Values are maps. When we value correct principles, we have truth -- a knowledge of things as they are.”

“Educating the heartis the critical complement to educating the mind.”

“Inevitably, anytime we are too vulnerable we feel the need to protect ourselves from further wounds. So we resort to sarcasm, cutting humor, criticism -- anything that will keep from exposing the tenderness within. Each partner tends to wait on the initiative of the other for love, only to be disappointed but also confirmed as to the rightness of the accusations made.”

“The way we see things is the source of the way we think or the way we act”

“The more closely our maps or paradigms are aligned with these principles or natural laws, the more accurate and functional they will be”

“If you don't let a teacher know what level you are -- by asking a question, or revealing your ignorance -- you will not learn or grow”

“Knowledge is the theoretical paradigm, the what to do and the why. Skill is the how to do. And desire is the motivation, the want to do. In order to make something a habit in our lives, we have to have all three”

“Inside-Out" means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self -- with your paradigms, your character, and your motives”

“It's sometimes a painful process. It's a change that has to be motivated by a higher purpose, by the willingness to subordinate what you think you want now for what you want later.”

“We hear a lot about identity theft when someone takes your wallet and pretends to be you and uses your credit cards. But the more serious identity theft is to get swallowed up in other people's definition of you.”

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

“We could spend weeks, months, even years laboring with the personality ethic trying to change our attitudes and behaviors and not even begin to approach the phenomenon of change that occurs spontaneously when we see things differently”

“The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.”

“When other people disagree with us, we immediately think something is wrong with them. But, as the demonstration shows, sincere, clearheaded people see things differently, each looking through the unique lens of experience.”

“The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

“what is most personal ,is most general.”

“Our problems and pain are universal and increasing, and the solutions to the problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history.”

“How you treat the one reveals how youregard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.”

“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.”

“Attending church does not necessarily mean living the principles taught in those meeting. You can be active in a church but inactive in its gospel.”

“My wife and I just don't have the same feelings for each other we used to have. I guess I just don't love her anymore and she doesn't love me. What can i do?""The feeling isn't there anymore?" I asked."That's right," he reaffirmed. "And we have three children we're really concerned about. What do you suggest?""love her," I replied."I told you, the feeling just isn't there anymore.""Love her.""You don't understand. the feeling of love just isn't there.""Then love her. If the feeling isn't there, that's a good reason to love her.""But how do you love when you don't love?" "My friend , love is a verb. Love - the feeling - is a fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Serve her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are you willing to do that?”

“There's no better way to inform and expand you mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature.”

“Courage isn't absenct of fear, it is the awareness that something else is important”

“In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.”

“Through real-life stories, Kristin Kaufman illustrates the core idea of being present in the moment and opening oneself up to new ideas in order to become an authentic leader in life.”

“The only person I know, is the person I want to be”

“When air is charged with emotions, an attempt to teach is often perceived as a form of judgment and rejection.”

“Happiness - in part at least - the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice waht we want for what we want eventually”

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

“Each of us guard a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside.”

“we're responsible for our own lives.”

“churchgoing is not synonymous with personal spirituality. There are some people who get so busy in church worship and projects that they become insensitive to the pressing human needs that sourround them, contradicting the very precepts they profess to believe deeply.”

“If you want to have a more pleasant,cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, emphatic, consistent, loving parent.”

“people have character strength but they lack communication skills, and that undoubtedly affects the quality of relationships as well.”

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

“Is it logical that two people can disagree and that both can be right? It's not logical: it's psychological. And it's very real.”

“Where we stand depends on where we sit." Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are—or, as we are conditioned to see it. When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms. When other people disagree with us, we immediately think something is wrong with them.”

“I believe that there are parts to human nature that cannot be reached by either legislation or education, but require the power of God to deal with.”

“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”

“Perhaps a sense of possessing needs to come to come before a sense of genuine sharing.”

“But borrowing strength builds weakness.”

“Being is seeing in the human dimension.”