A Quote by Stephen Covey

It is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.

Stephen Covey

Quote Topics

Before Character Futile Improve Improving Others Ourselves Personality Put Relationships Relationships With Others Try

Quote Author

Stephen Covey
American - Educator
October 24, 1932 - July 16, 2012

The 'Inside-Out' approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self, with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.

Stephen Covey

Society is made up of individuals. The thoughts and actions of each individual influence the culture of that society. Instead of waiting for others to improve, we should try to improve ourselves. Once our attitude has changed, we will be able to perceive goodness throughout world. If there is a positive change in us, it will also be reflected in others. It is only what we give that we can hope to get back.

Mata Amritanandamayi

The point is, there is no feasible excuse for what are, for what we have made of ourselves. We have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality, dividends before decency, fanaticism before fairness, and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others

Iain Banks

We should always be aspiring to know more, and to better ourselves, and to improve ourselves. To improve ourselves, because that's how we improve the world around us, by working within us.

Lauryn Hill

Man cannot really improve himself without improving others.

Charles Dickens

Improving yourself is a lot more profitable than trying to improve others.

Dale Carnegie

Before us lie two paths - honesty and dishonesty. The shortsighted embark on the dishonest path; the wise on the honest. For the wise know the truth; in helping others we help ourselves; and in hurting others we hurt ourselves. Character overshadows money, and trust rises above fame. Honesty is still the best policy.

Napoleon Hill

I'm a competitive player, a fighter, and I always try to improve what I think needs improving.

Gonzalo Higuain

As ideas are preserved and communicated by means of words, it necessarily follows that we cannot improve the language of any science, without at the same time improving the science itself; neither can we, on the other hand, improve a science without improving the language or nomenclature which belongs to it.

Antoine Lavoisier

It is only when we possess ourselves that we can give ourselves to others. If what we possess feels wrong, bad, or wicked, then we try not only to hide it from others, but we also try to hide it from ourselves.

Jack Dominian

When you are small, and you have to try and prove yourself, it is tough. When others are catching up and copy you, that's tough. We constantly need to change ourselves to stay ahead of the game.

Jochen Zeitz

Until a character becomes a personality it cannot be believed. Without personality, the character may do funny or interesting things, but unless people are able to identify themselves with the character, its actions will seem unreal. And without personality, a story cannot ring true to the audience.

Walt Disney

That's the most important thing, improving myself in training, and improving in the things I don't do better, so improving in all aspects, in all areas, in training, to improve game by game and hopefully they will keep coming and hopefully we'll get to the top.

Kelechi Iheanacho

The second commandment that Jesus referred to was not to love others instead of ourselves, but to love them as ourselves. Before we can love and serve others, we must love ourselves, even in our imperfection. If we don't embrace our own defects, we can't love others with their shortcomings.

Jim Warner

Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves; to break our own records; to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays; to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could; to give as we never have given; to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever. This is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves.