Stephen R. Covey

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

If you’re proactive, you don’t have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own.

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

It’s easy to say no! when there’s a deeper yes! burning inside.

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

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

Sometimes a loss is the best thing that can happen. It teaches you what you should have done.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking tartar sauce with you.

You can do it all. Don’t ever let anyone limit you. As long as you are authentic to you, do you.

Find the game where you can win, and then commit your life to playing it; and play to win.

It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.

The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.

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

Whether it’s eight o’clock in the morning or eight o’clock at night, I always try to greet others before they have a chance to speak to me.

You can make just about anything of your life-anything you will believe or will visualize, anything you will pray for and work for. Look deeply into your mind. Amazing wonders are there. Whatever the situation may be, you can improve it.

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally being lived. They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates and society.