Stephen Covey Quotes

To make your people understand what righteousness is, this must be the basis of all your teaching.

Know the difference between principles based on right or wrong vs. principles based on personal gain, and consider the basis of your own principles.

At times, morality can be dismissed as a matter of personal conscience, no matter how widespread its acceptance. Ethics, on the other hand, arises from societal or group commitments to principia of behavior.

I'll never go against my morals.

Character is one of most precious parts of you. You can't get involved in things that will damage your character.

States are supposed to have interests but no principles. I have principles but no interests.

I will never cheat in any walk of life.

What are the values that give meaning? What is the line that you will never cross, because on this side you're good, and on this side you're evil.

One needs to know what is right and what is wrong.

I have a pretty keen ethical compass.

My parents are naive in their morality of things, and so, without realising it, I landed up being ethical and having strong opinions.

Right and wrong as moral principles do not change. They are applicable and reliable determinants whether the situations with which we deal are simple or complicated. There is always a right and wrong to every question which requires our solution.

Moral stupidity comes in two different forms: relativism and legalism. Relativism sees no principles, only people; legalism sees no people, only principles.

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules

Principles are like seeds; they are little things which do much good, if the mind that receives them has the right attitudes.

You know, there's a right and wrong way to do everything.

It is this language of values which I hope to bring to my books. . . . I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I want to etch those values in terms of the ideal. Young people need ideals which identify them, and their lives, as central . . . guideposts which tell them what they can be, should be, and indeed are.

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?

What is morality, she asked. Judgement to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, and courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price.

Circumstances should never alter principles!

I was brought up an atheist and have always remained so. But at no time was I led to believe that morality was unimportant or that good and bad did not exist. I believe passionately in the need to distinguish between right and wrong and am somewhat confounded by being told I need God, Jesus or a clergyman to help me to do so.

In the end, leaders are defined by the convictions they hold.

The characteristic virtue of Englishmen is power of sustained practical activity and their characteristic vice a reluctance to test the quality of that activity by reference to principles.

You will never win if you don't deal with your work ethically. All that you need to do is to stick to your principles; morals are relative.

Temptations make one very censorious. If you are virtuous you condemn the wicked and if you are wicked, you condemn the virtuous.