Stephen Covey

“When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That's when you can get more creative in solving problems.”

“I must change in order to change the world. The only revolution with any permanent value takes part in the breast of the individual person.”

“You can't talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.”

“What air is to the body, to feel understood is to the heart.”

“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.”

“When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.”

“The great obstacle to communication is the tendency to constantly evaluate or moralize with others, creating in them a fear to speak or act. The great key to this communication is to learn to listen attentively with understanding to the other person’s point of view creating an atmosphere of love and approval.”

“You're not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.”

“The true identity theft is not financial. It's not in cyberspace. It's spiritual. It's been taken.”

“Most people are basically a victim of the circumstances of their life. They have things like 9/11, they have terrorism threats, they have new war threats, they have economy problems, and they think, 'What can I do? I'm basically a victim.'”

“Both times I was in India, I could not get people to listen to each other. I had to literally tell people to listen to each other and tell them that they can't get creative and find alternate solutions if they don't listen to each other. There's a lot of arguing and justifying.”

“The solutions to our problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history.”

“Some habits of ineffectiveness are rooted in our social conditioning toward quick-fix, short-term thinking.”

“If there's one thing that's certain in business, it's uncertainty.”

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

“People and organizations don't grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.”

“We become what we repeatedly do.”

“Family home evening is more for the purpose of teaching values and gospel principles, displaying talents and enjoying different kinds of family fun and activities.”

“Remember, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

“In this knowledge-worker age, it's now increasingly tied to doing well in school so you can get into better grad schools so you can get better jobs - so the pressure to do well is really high.”