Stephen R. Covey · 372 pages
Rating: (359.1K votes)
“But until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.”
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
“Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and
he will become as he can and should be.”
“Start with the end in mind. ”
“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”
“Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw”
“When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.”
“Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.”
“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.”
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”
“It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”
“My wife and I just don't have the same feelings for each other we used to have. I guess I just don't love her anymore and she doesn't love me. What can i do?"
"The feeling isn't there anymore?" I asked.
"That's right," he reaffirmed. "And we have three children we're really concerned about. What do you suggest?"
"love her," I replied.
"I told you, the feeling just isn't there anymore."
"Love her."
"You don't understand. the feeling of love just isn't there."
"Then love her. If the feeling isn't there, that's a good reason to love her."
"But how do you love when you don't love?"
"My friend , love is a verb. Love - the feeling - is a fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Serve her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are you willing to do that?”
“If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control - myself.”
“It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.”
“to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.”
“Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.”
“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”
“At some time in your life, you probably had someone believe in you when you didn't believe in yourself.”
“Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love the verb or our loving actions. So love her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her.”
“The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.”
“Courage isn't absenct of fear, it is the awareness that something else is important”
“Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential.”
“ان ما يعطي القيمة لشئ هو مقدار اهتمامنا به”
“Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.”
“Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.”
“As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves.”
“People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them.”
“There's no better way to inform and expand you mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature.”
“How you treat the one reveals how you
regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.”
“I can deal with anything, as long as I know it's the truth. It's the lies that are hard.”
“I have nothing against kids—as long as they go home with their parents at the end of the day.”
“It's about living in the moment and appreciating the smallest things. Surrounding yourself with the things that inspire you and letting go of the obsessions that want to take over your mind. It is a daily struggle sometimes and hard work but happiness begins with your own attitude and how you look at the world.”
“Ravens are like step-children," Ty answered as he squinted up at the screen. "I love them, but they're still sleeping on the couch when the house is full.”
“Clent's expression had set up camp somewhere between amusement and pain. "Sometimes I forget that your small size is the result of youth, not pickling. You are... young, Mosca.
"To be young is to be powerless, but to have delusions of power. To believe that one can really change things, make the world better and simpler in good and simple ways. To grow old is to realize that nobody is ever good, nothing is ever simple. That truth is cruel at first, but finally comforting."
"But...," Mosca broke in, then halted. Clent was right- she knew that he was. And yet her bones screamed that he was also wrong, utterly wrong. "But sometimes things /are/ simple. Just now and then. Just like now and then people /are/ good."
"Yes." Clent gave a deep sigh. "Yes, I know. Innocent people force one to remember that. For you see, there is a cruelty in all innocence."
Mosca remained silent for a few moments, daunted by the colossal sadness in his voice. "I'll never understand you, Mr. Clent," she said at last.
"Mosca," he replied simply, "I truly hope you never do.”
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