Stephen Covey Quotes

There's a rule, I think. You get what you want in life, but not your second choice too.

Life is like a giant smorgasbord of more delicious alternatives than you can ever hope to taste. So you have to reject having some things you want in order to get other things you want more.

Unfortunately, in life, you have to make decisions based on so many things. I love watching the Premier League, and I've always had the opportunity to go, but a better offer always got in the way.

Everything has an opportunity cost, and the big things we want in life - like happiness and healthy relationships and wealth - they all have big opportunity costs.

Living is nothing more or less than doing one thing instead of another.

Sometimes, in order to say yes to what matters most, I must say no to good things.

You can have anything in life you really want - but you can't have everything in life you really want. Decide.

Life does not give itself to one who tries to keep all its advantages at once. I have often thought morality may perhaps consist solely in the courage of making a choice.

Strategy is choice. Strategy means saying no to certain kinds of things.

The problem, simply put, is that we cannot choose everything simultaneously. So we live in danger of becoming paralyzed by indecision, terrified that every choice might be the wrong choice.

Choice means saying no to one thing so you can say yes to another.

The truth is that you can spend your life any way you want, but you can spend it only once.

A dozen times a day we come to a fork in the road and must decide which way we will go. It is important to get our ultimate objectives clearly in mind so that we do not become distracted at each fork in the road by the irrelevant questions: Which is the easier or more pleasant way? Or, Which way are others going?

Focusing is about saying No.

What's valuable to me has become clearer as I've got older. To me, it's about the value of your time and your day and the value of the people you spend it with.

Saying 'yes' to one thing means saying 'no' to another. That's why decisions can be hard sometimes.

We all have choices we have to make, and with those choices come certain sacrifices.

You know, I spend most of my life turning things down. There's a lot of crap out there.

There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.

I've thought it would be cool to have a baby young. You know, be my road dog - like my dogs, they travel the world - but there's always something you have to give up for success. Everything comes at a cost. Just what are you willing to pay for it?

Life is full of trade-offs. At different phrases in your life, you're able to do certain things that you can't do at other phases. And you make choices.

Time is our ultimate scarcity. Isaac Newton can give us more electricity, but he can't give us more than 24 hours of the day of time. And so we're constantly having to sacrifice alternate activities to get the one that pleases us most.

You can make more money - you can buy a new body - but you can't buy time. If you are wasting it, make different choices. Don't wait.

Very successful people say no to almost everything.

This fork in the road happens over a hundred times a day, and it's the choices that you make that will determine the shape of your life.