Stephen R. Covey

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.

Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment-independent will-that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.

Private victories precede public victories. You can’t invert that process any more than you can harvest a crop before you plant it.

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.

Be grateful for what you have and stop complaining – it bores everybody else, does you no good, and doesn’t solve any problems.

The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Fortunately, problems are an everyday part of our life. Consider this: If there were no problems, most of us would be unemployed.

I wasn’t satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement.

Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.

We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions.

lf you don’t think everyday is a great day, try going without one.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

The most important thing in life is to love what you’re doing, because that’s the only way you’ll ever be really good at it.

There is no substitute for hard work.

Risk-taking is the cornerstone of empires.

Thinking expansively includes seeing what is possible and making it happen.

I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.

Dream big dreams. Only big dreams have the power to move men’s souls.