Stephen Covey Quotes

I don't want to do anything that violates my own personal code of ethics and morals.

Morality is always derivative. It stems from one's worldview.

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

I'll never go against my morals.

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.

While values drive behaviors, principles govern consequences.

There can be no compromise on moral principles.

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.

If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.

Principles are what allow you to live a life consistent with those values. Principles connect your values to your actions.

A different vision of ethics is that of a collection of resources people can use to act better. The resources might be firm rules that could always be relied on. Or they might be ideals that could often be followed without thinking but that sometimes conflicted with one another.

Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.

The law functions as formal embodiment of a moral code, not as free-standing substitute for it.

Don't compromise your principles.

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

Morality is truth in full bloom.

The relationship between the films and the individual Commandments [is] a tentative one. The films should be influenced by the individual Commandments to the same degree that the Commandments influence our daily lives.

Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences.

Renunciation is the very basis upon which ethics stands. There never was an ethical code preached which had not renunciation for its basis.

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?

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.

Morals were restrictive, but they were grounded on human experience.

Consequences are governed by principles, and behavior is governed by values; therefore, value principles!

For many people, morality means a set of rules governing the disposition on one's genital organs; or a set of injunctions against lying, stealing, or killing except when such acts are sanctioned by church or state.