Stephen Covey Quotes

I think every relationship is going to go through a few rough patches. Those are what make it stronger, I think.

If you become a master of meaning, you become a master of your life. Two people can have the same experience. One person decides that because of that experience his or her life is over, while the other decides that God has challenged him or her to step up, face the challenge, and become more than he or she ever was before.

Some people say that you shouldn't operate from a place of fear but if there is no fear, how is there a challenge?

You have to meet all of the challenges, big and small. Because how you start is how you finish.

Obviously, this isn't the time in my life that I would have chosen to do this, but I feel like life gives you these challenges for a reason. I feel so happy and glad to be in the place that I am. I really feel blessed. This is something I need to face and take control of.

I love hearing stories about, you know, people who are overcoming challenges in their life. And when you experience hardships, you can either fold or rally, and just by a paradigm shift in your belief system.

The only people without problems are those in cemeteries. It is not what happens to us that separates failures from successes. It is how we perceive and what we do about what happens that makes the difference.

Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.....For years we have been learning, practicing, been in training for...and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

Most people have turned their solutions toward what is easy and toward the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust in what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it.

Wanting to change, to improve, a person's situation means offering him, for difficulties in which he is practiced and experienced, other difficulties that will find him perhaps even more bewildered.

In times of adversity and change, we really discover who we are and what we're made of.

Adversity is an opportunity for self-discovery.

The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.

We learn as much from sorrow as from joy, as much from illness as from health, from handicap as from advantage and indeed perhaps more.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

Adversity always presents opportunities for introspection.

The things we overcome in life really become our strengths.

It is a way to avoid difficulties, but whenever you avoid difficulties and challenges you have avoided growth also. Married people never grow. Lovers grow, because they have to meet the challenge every moment - and with no security. They have to create an inner phenomenon. With security you need not bother to create anything; the society helps.

People who haven't experienced major setbacks sometimes feel that their hurts are somehow less legitimate or real.

Everyone is going to face challenges. What defines you is how you overcome those.

I may have absolutely no control over what happens to us, but we can control how we respond. If we choose the right attitude, we can rise above whatever challenges we face.

When fate throws a dagger at you, there are ways to catch it. If you catch it by the blade, you can harm yourself. But if you catch it by the handle, you can use it to help you fight through the obstacles ahead.

What is failure? We can’t possibly know what failure is. Most people think they do, but that’s because they’re judging how their lives should be and what they need it to be: a success. Who is to say what’s a success and what’s a failure? Do your best. Trust. Relax. Do your best. Enjoy yourself.

It's amazing when tragedy strikes, how strong you find that you are, and I'd seen other people go through horrible things. And I just thought, "Wow, I would be a complete mess," and then suddenly when it happens, you realize you had more strength than you knew and it helps you to get through.

The trials and pressures of life--and how we face them--often define us. Confronted by adversity, many people give up while others rise up. How do those who succeed do it? They persevere. They find the benefit to them personally that comes from any trial. And they recognize that the best thing about adversity is coming out on the other side of it. There is a sweetness to overcoming your troubles and finding something good in the process, however small it may be. Giving up when adversity threatens can make a person bitter. Persevering through adversity makes one better.