Stephen R. Covey

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.

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

It’s a fact that more people watch television and get their information that way than read books. I find new technology and new ways of communication very exciting and would like to do more in this field.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships.

Lose/Win people bury a lot of feelings. And unexpressed feelings come forth later in uglier ways. Psychosomatic illnesses often are the reincarnation of cumulative resentment, deep disappointment and disillusionment repressed by the Lose/Win mentality. Disproportionate rage or anger, overreaction to minor provocation, and cynicism are other embodiments of suppressed emotion. People who are constantly repressing, not transcending feelings toward a higher meaning find that it affects the quality of their relationships with others.

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

Living your words, walking your talk, and talking your walk.

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.

Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared, but only men of character are trusted.

If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.

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

We are guided by outcomes, not ideology. We have a policy of principled realism, rooted in shared goals, interests, and values. That realism forces us to confront a question facing every leader and nation in this room. It is a question we cannot escape or avoid. We will slide down the path of complacency, numb to the challenges, threats, and even wars that we face. Or do we have enough strength and pride to confront those dangers today, so that our citizens can enjoy peace and prosperity tomorrow?

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

There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.

Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will.

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, and some ask what happened.

All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing the things you are not supposed to do.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.