Stephen Covey Quotes

American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker (1932-2012)

Stephen R. Covey (October 24, 1932 – July 16, 2012) was an American author of the bestselling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, as well as other books.

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Native Name: Stephen Richards Covey

Alternative Names: Stephen R. Covey

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By accepting people you’re not condoning their weakness or agreeing with their opinion; you’re simply affirming their intrinsic worth.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

Spiritual Intelligence represents our drive for meaning and connection with the infinite.

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

Prepare your mind and heart before you prepare your speech. What we say may be less important than how we say it.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” Is that not also the essence of good teaching?

In fact, “grow or die” is the moral imperative of all existence.

It is our willing permission, our consent to what happens to us, that hurts us far more than what happens to us in the first place.

Suddenly I saw things differently, and because I saw differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently.

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.

Basing our happiness on our ability to control everything is futile. While we do control our choice of action, we cannot control the consequences of our choices.

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.

Don't compromise, when you can synergize.

My experience has been that there are times to teach and times not to teach. When relationships are strained and the air charged with emotion, an attempt to teach is often perceived as a form of judgment and rejection.