Great Throughts Treasury

"Happiness is essentially a by-product of subordinating what we want now for what we want eventually."

"Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice."

"Have you ever been too busy driving to take time to get gas?"

"Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family."

"He who has a why can deal with any what or how."

"He (Anwar Sadat) records that he was almost loath to leave his prison cell because it was there that he realized that real success is success with self. It?s not in having things, but in having mastery, having victory over self."

"How does humility manifest itself in leadership and in life? A humble person is more concerned about what is right than about being right, about acting on good ideas than having the ideas, about embracing new truth than defending outdated position, about building the team than exalting self, about recognizing contribution than being recognized for making it."

"Honesty is telling the truth ? in other words, conforming our words to reality. Integrity is conforming reality to our words ? in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations."

"How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one."

"Humility is the mother of all virtues, courage the father, integrity the child and wisdom the grandchild."

"humans have between what happens to us and our response to it."

"Humility is the mother of all virtues. Humility says we are not in control, principles are in control, therefore we submit ourselves to principles. Pride says that we are in control, and since our values govern our behavior, we can simply do life our way."

"Humility is the mother of all virtues: the humble in spirit progress and are blessed because they willingly submit to higher powers and try to live in harmony with natural laws and universal principles. Courage is the father of all virtues; we need great courage to lead our lives by correct principles and to have integrity in the moment of choice."

"I am not suggesting that elements of the Personality Ethic?personality growth, communication skill training, and education in the field of influence strategies and positive thinking?are not beneficial, in fact sometimes essential for success."

"I believe that a life of integrity is the most fundamental source of personal worth. I do not agree with the popular success literature that says that self-esteem is primarily a matter of mind set, of attitude?that you can psych yourself into peace of mind. Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way."

"I believe in this concept that you learn by teaching."

"I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday."

"I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions."

"I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine."

"I believe that there are parts to human nature that cannot be reached by either legislation or education, but require the power of God to deal with."

"I believe that correct principles are natural laws, and that God, the Creator and Father of us all, is the source of them, and also the source of our conscience. I believe that to the degree people live by this inspired conscience, they will grow to fulfill their natures; to the degree that they do not, they will not rise above the animal plane."

"I believe the most important attribute for a leader is being principle-centered. Centering on principles that are universal and timeless provides a foundation and compass to guide every decision and every act. I?ve based my life?s work on promoting principles and teaching the power that resides in principle-centered leadership. Principles are not my invention; they are self-evident and are found throughout the world. If you look at all enduring philosophies, religions and thoughts, you will find principles such as integrity, compassion, trust, honesty, accountability and others at their core. I simply translated these principles into a framework of habits, which when followed with consistency and frequency transforms one?s character and allows one to earn the moral authority necessary for enduring leadership."

"I can change. I can live out of my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past. I can become my own? creator."

"I commend to you this simple way of thinking about life: a whole person (body, mind, heart, and spirit) with four basic needs (to live, to learn, to love, to leave a legacy), and four intelligences or capacities (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) and their higher manifestations (discipline, vision, passion conscience), all of which represent the four dimensions of voice (need, talent, passion, and conscience). (see Table 1 on page 84)"

"I have also found that by making four simple assumptions in our lives we can immediately begin leading a more balanced, integrated, powerful life. They are simple?one for each part of our nature?but I promise you that if you do them consistently, you will find a new wellspring of strength and integrity to draw on when you need it most. 1) For the body?assume you've had a heart attack; now live accordingly. 2) For the mind?assume the half-life of your profession is two years; now prepare accordingly. 3) For the heart?assume everything you say about another, they can overhear; now speak accordingly. 4) For the spirit?assume you have a one-on-one visit with your Creator every quarter; now live accordingly."

"I don?t have time to sharpen the saw, the man says emphatically. I?m too busy sawing!"

"I have found many organizations that develop as many as three of the dimensions?they may have good service criteria, good economic criteria, and good human relations criteria, but they are not really committed to identifying, developing, utilizing, and recognizing the talent of people. And if these psychological forces are missing, the style will be a benevolent autocracy and the resulting culture will reflect different forms of collective resistance, adversarialism, excessive turnover, and other deep, chronic, cultural problems."

"I have personally found living the 7 Habits a constant struggle?primarily because the better you get, the very nature of the challenge changes, just like skiing, playing golf, tennis, or any sport does. Because I sincerely work and struggle every day at living these principle-embodied habits, I warmly join you in this adventure."

"I know it is possible not only to restore trust but to actually enhance it. The difficult things that we go through with the important people in our lives can become fertile ground for the growth of enduring trust ? trust that is actually stronger because it?s been tested and proved through challenge."

"I know this idea is a dramatic paradigm shift for many people. It is so much easier to blame other people, conditioning, or conditions for our own stagnant situation. But we are responsible?response-able?to control our lives and to powerfully influence our circumstances by working on be, on what we are."

"I have come in contact with many individuals who have achieved an incredible degree of outward success, but have found themselves struggling with an inner hunger, a deep need for personal congruency and effectiveness and for healthy, growing relationships with other people."

"I realized that Sandra and I had been getting social mileage out of our children?s good behavior, and, in our eyes, this son simply didn?t measure up."

"I have seen the consequences of attempting to shortcut this natural process of growth often in the business world, where executives attempt to buy a new culture of improved productivity, quality, morale, and customer service with strong speeches, smile training, and external interventions, or through mergers, acquisitions, and friendly or unfriendly takeovers. But they ignore the low-trust climate produced by such manipulations. When these methods don?t work, they look for other Personality Ethic techniques that will?all the time ignoring and violating the natural principles and processes on which a high-trust culture is based."

"I read all the new information, I set goals, I get myself all psyched up with a positive mental attitude and tell myself I can do it. But I don?t. After a few weeks, I fizzle. I just can?t seem to keep a promise I make to myself."

"I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow."

"I think the most significant work we ever do, in the whole world, in our whole life, is done within the four walls of our own home."

"I?ve learned that once children gain a sense of real possession, they share very naturally, freely, and spontaneously."

"Identity is destiny."

"If I am intellectually interdependent, I realize that I need the best thinking of other people to join with my own."

"If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control - myself."

"I?ve set and met my career goals and I?m having tremendous professional success. But it?s cost me my personal and family life. I don?t know my wife and children anymore. I?m not even sure I know myself and what?s really important to me. I?ve had to ask myself?is it worth it?"

"If my sense of security lies in my reputation or in the things I have, my life will be in a constant state of threat and jeopardy that these possessions may be lost or stolen or devalued."

"If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other?while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity and insincerity?then, in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do?even using so-called good human relations techniques?will be perceived as manipulative."

"If I make deposits into an Emotional Bank Account with you through courtesy, kindness, honesty, and keeping my commitments to you, I build up a reserve. Your trust toward me becomes higher, and I can call upon that trust many times if I need to. I can even make mistakes and that trust level, that emotional reserve, will compensate for it. My communication may not be clear, but you?ll get my meaning anyway. You won?t make me an offender for a word. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective."

"If our feelings control our actions, it is because we have abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so."

"If there isn?t deep integrity and fundamental character strength, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will replace short-term success."

"If there is no gardener there is no garden."

"If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster."

"If the only vision we have of ourselves comes from the social mirror? our view of ourselves is like the reflection in the crazy mirror room at the carnival."

"If there's one thing that's certain in business, it's uncertainty."