Stephen R. Covey

“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.”

“Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.”

“We must look at the lens through we see the world, as well as the world we see, and that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.”

“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”

“It comes from within.”

“Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.”

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”

“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.”

“Don't argue for other people's weaknesses. Don't argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it / immediately.”

“people are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope...with all of their might.”

“People simply feel better about themselves when they’re good at something.”

“People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them.”

“The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions”

“لكي تكون سباقاً يجب أن تعمل على تغيير الظروف بما يخدم أهدافك ، لا أن تغير أهدافك وفقاً لما تمليه الظروف”

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

“If we do not teach our children, societ will. And they-and we-will live with the results.”

“They [Nazi captors]had more liberty, more options to choose from in their environment; but he [Viktor Frankl] had more freedom, more internal power to exercise his options.”

“I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow.”

“The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.”

“If you organize your family life to spend even ten or fifteen minutes a morning reading something that connects you with these timeless principles, its almost guaranteed that you will make better choices during the day--in the family, on the job, in every dimension of life. Your thoughts will be higher. Your interactions will be more satisfying. You will have a greater perspective. You will increase that space between what happens to you and your response to it. You will be more connected to what really matters most.”

“To maintain the P/PC Balance, the balance between the golden egg (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgment call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness.”

“to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.”

“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”

“Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

“At some time in your life, you probably had someone believe in you when you didn't believe in yourself.”

“Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential.”

“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.”

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

“When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.”

“The core of any family is what is changeless, what is going to be there──shared vision and values.”

“Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.”

“It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”

“Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.”

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

“We are not our feelings. We are not our moods. We are not even our thoughts. The very fact that we can think about these things separates us from them and from the animal world. Self-awareness enables us to stand apart and examine even the way we “see” ourselves—our self-paradigm, the most fundamental paradigm of effectiveness. It affects not only our attitudes and behaviors, but also how we see other people.”

“The way we see the problem is the problem.”

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

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

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

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

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities”

“We are free to choose our actions, . . . but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.”

“[W]isdom is the child of integrity—being integrated around principles. And integrity is the child of humility and courage. In fact, you could say that humility is the mother of all virtues because humility acknowledges that there are natural laws or principles that govern the universe. They are in charge. Pride teaches us that we are in charge. Humility teaches us to understand and live by principles, because they ultimately govern the consequences of our actions. If humility is the mother, courage is the father of wisdom. Because to truly live by these principles when they are contrary to social mores, norms and values takes enormous courage.”

“But until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.”

“Start with the end in mind. ”

“How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.”

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

“Independent will is our capacity to act. It gives us the power to transcend our paradigms, to swim upstream, to rewrite our scripts, to act based on principle rather than reacting based on emotion or circumstance.”