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.”
“As the surface of the seashore rocks were pitted by by the waves and gathered limpets that further disguised what lay beneath, so time made truth of what appeared to be. The days that passed, in becoming weeks, still did not disturb the surface an assumption had created. The weather of a beautiful summer continued with neither sign nor hint that credence had been misplaced. The single sandal found among the rocks became a sodden image of death; and as the keening on the pier at Kilauran traditionally marked distres brought by the sea, so did silence at Lahardane.”
“He said nothing. Juliana peeped at him again. “You’re very anxious to get her in your power again,
Vidal. But I don’t quite know why you should be, for you meant to marry her only because you had
ruined her, and so were obliged to, didn’t you?”
She thought that he was not going to answer, but suddenly he raised his eyes from the contemplation
of the dregs of his wine. “Because I am obliged to?” he said. “I mean to marry Mary Challoner
because I’m devilish sure I can’t live without her.”
Juliana clapped her hands with a crow of delight. “Oh, it is famous!” she exclaimed. “I never dreamed
you had fallen in love with my staid Mary! I thought you were chasing her through France just
because you so hate to be crossed! But when you flew into a rage with me for saying she was too dull
to be afraid of you, of course, I guessed at once! My dearest Dominic, I was never more glad of
anything in my life, and it is of all things the most romantic possible! Do, do let us overtake them at
once! Only conceive of their astonishment when they see us!”
“Read it wisely, Little One, for the power of ignorance is great.”
“She's very selfish. Not exactly self-centered, but totally indifferent to everyone and everything. Don't you agree?'
'I don't think that's possible,' said Mr Satterthwaite, slowly. 'I mean everyone's interest must go somewhere.”
“So I found myself telling my own stories. It was strange: as I did it I realised how much we get shaped by our stories. It's like the stories of our lives make us the people we are. If someone had no stories, they wouldn't be human, wouldn't exist. And if my stories had been different I wouldn't be the person I am.”
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