BEST Stephen Covey Books & Quotes of All Time (February 2023)

by Arthur Worsley
M.A. Psychology, Oxford. McKinsey Alum. Founder & Editor at TAoL.

Looking for the best Stephen Covey books and quotes of all time?

You're in the right place!

Here's what you'll find on this page...

Contents

1. Who Was Stephen Covey?

2. The Best Stephen Covey Books of All Time

3. More Books Like Stephen Covey's Books

4. Best Stephen Covey Quotes

5. Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Who Was Stephen Covey?

Stephen Covey (October 24, 1932 – July 16, 2012) was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker. His most popular book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In 1996, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people. He was a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University at the time of his death.

Learn more about Stephen Covey

The Best Stephen Covey Books of All Time

Why these best Stephen Covey books and not others? To stay objective, I rank all my book recommendations by a combination of what’s most loved (Goodreads rating), what’s most popular (Goodreads review count) and what’s proven timlessly relevant (first publication date).

This isn’t a whimsical list. It’s a data-driven, crowdsourced collection of the best Stephen Covey books ever published as decided by book lovers like you.

And if you think something's missing? I LOVE book recommendations so if there are any other books by Stephen Covey that you think deserve mentioning, email me and I’ll be sure to include them in the next round of updates.

Until then, here are the best Stephen Covey books of all time...

Best Stephen Covey Books: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey (FREE Summary)

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

A perennial masterpiece on leading a happy, productive and purposeful existence and an unmissable stop for any pilgrim of personal improvement - by educator, author and speaker, Stephen Covey.

Published 1989 // 372 pages // Rated 4.1 over 590,700 reviews on Goodreads

Best Stephen Covey Books: Spiritual Roots of Human Relations

2. Spiritual Roots of Human Relations - Stephen R. Covey

Published 1970 // 336 pages // Rated 4.2 over 900 reviews on Goodreads

Best Stephen Covey Books: First Things First

3. First Things First - Stephen R. Covey (FREE Summary)

First Things First is an action-oriented time-management manual, filled with frameworks and exercises to help you do more of what matters and less of what doesn't - by the author of the #1 book on this list, Stephen Covey.

Published 1993 // 384 pages // Rated 4.1 over 40,400 reviews on Goodreads

Best Stephen Covey Books: Principle-Centered Leadership

4. Principle-Centered Leadership - Stephen R. Covey

Published 1991 // 336 pages // Rated 4.1 over 17,100 reviews on Goodreads

Best Stephen Covey Books: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families

5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families - Stephen R. Covey

Published 1996 // 390 pages // Rated 4.2 over 8,900 reviews on Goodreads

Best Stephen Covey Books: The Divine Center

6. The Divine Center - Stephen R. Covey

Published 1998 // 320 pages // Rated 4.3 over 800 reviews on Goodreads

7. The 8th Habit - Stephen R. Covey

From Effectiveness to Greatness

Published 2004 // 432 pages // Rated 4.0 over 15,800 reviews on Goodreads

Best Stephen Covey Books: Living the 7 Habits

8. Living the 7 Habits - Stephen R. Covey

The Courage to Change

Published 1995 // 336 pages // Rated 4.0 over 1,400 reviews on Goodreads

9. Six Events - Stephen R. Covey

The Restoration Model for Solving Life's Problems

Published 2004 // 284 pages // Rated 4.3 over 300 reviews on Goodreads

Best Stephen Covey Books: Everyday Greatness

10. Everyday Greatness - Stephen R. Covey

Inspiration for a Meaningful Life

Published 2006 // 445 pages // Rated 4.1 over 900 reviews on Goodreads

See all Stephen Covey's books on Amazon
Visit Stephen Covey's Goodreads profile

More Books Like Stephen Covey's Books

Enjoyed these Stephen Covey books? You might also like...

Best Books on Procrastination: 15 TOP Books on Taking Action

Best Mindset Books: The 60 BEST Books to Improve Mindset

Best Productivity Books: The 70 BEST Books on Taking Action

Best Self Discipline Books: 20 TOP Books on Self Control

Best Self Help Books: The 100 Best Self Help Books of All Time

See all TAoL's book recommendations →

Best Stephen Covey Quotes

Here are some of the best Stephen Covey of all time...

"Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"If you want to achieve your highest aspirations and overcome your greatest challenges, identify and apply the principle or natural law that governs the results you seek."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Best Stephen Covey Quotes: If you want to achieve your highest aspirations and overcome your greatest challenges, identify and apply the principle or natural law that governs the results you seek.

"How many on their deathbeds wished they’d spent more time at the office – or watching TV? The answer is, No one. They think about their loved ones, their families, and those they have served."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"We see the world, not as it is, but as we are—or, as we are conditioned to see it… The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"If you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want the secondary greatness of recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own effort. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make. Dependent people cannot choose to become interdependent. They don’t have the character to do it; they don’t own enough of themselves."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values—carefully thought about, selected and internalized values."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Love is a verb. Reactive people make it a feeling."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"A good affirmation has five basic ingredients: it’s personal, it’s positive, it’s present tense, it’s visual, visual, and it’s emotional. So I might write something like this: “It is deeply satisfying (emotional) that I (personal) respond (present tense) with wisdom, love, firmness, and self-control (positive) when my children misbehave.”"

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Without involvement, there is no commitment."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Integrity is the value we place on ourselves. It’s our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves, to ‘walk our talk.'"

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"If you want to get something done, give it to a busy man."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"You simply can’t think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"One person’s mission is another person’s minutiae."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"You can’t change the fruit without changing the root."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Maturity is the balance between courage and consideration."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Abundance Mentality… flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"If you put good people in bad systems, you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Empathy is not sympathy. Sympathy is a form of agreement, a form of judgment. And it is sometimes the more appropriate emotion and response. But people often feed on sympathy. It makes them dependent. The essence of empathic listening is not that you agree with someone; it’s that you fully, deeply, understand that person, emotionally as well as intellectually."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"The essence of synergy is to value differences—to respect them, to build on strengths, to compensate for weaknesses."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"The more authentic you become, the more genuine in your expression, particularly regarding personal experiences and even self-doubts, the more people can relate to your expression and the safer it makes them feel to express themselves."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Sameness is not oneness; uniformity is not unity."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"When we’re left to our own experiences, we constantly suffer from a shortage of data."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"If two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Principles are independent of us. They operate regardless of our awareness of them, acceptance of them, liking of them, belief in them, or obeying of them."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Living the 7 Habits is a constant struggle for everyone. Everyone falters from time to time on each of the seven and sometimes all seven simultaneously. They really are simple to understand but difficult to consistently practice. They are common sense but what is common sense is not always common practice."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"The most important habit is the one you are having the most difficult time living."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"The most important work you will ever do is always ahead of you. It is never behind you. You should always be expanding and deepening your commitment to that work. Retirement is a false concept. You may retire from a job, but never retire from meaningful projects and contributions."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"We are free to choose our actions... but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"It’s not enough to dream. It’s not enough to try. It’s not enough to set goals or climb ladders. It’s not enough to value. The effort has to be based on practical realities that produce the result. Only then can we dream, set goals, and work to achieve them with confidence."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

Best Stephen Covey Quotes: It’s not enough to dream. It’s not enough to try. It’s not enough to set goals or climb ladders. It’s not enough to value. The effort has to be based on practical realities that produce the result. Only then can we dream, set goals, and work to achieve them with confidence.

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"What we believe about ourselves and our purpose has a powerful impact on how we live, how we love, and what we learn."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"A meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It’s much more a matter of what you do and why you do it, than how fast you get it done."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"Basing our happiness on our ability to control everything is futile. While we do control our choice of action, we cannot control the consequences of our choices."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"Urgency addiction is a self-destructive behavior that temporarily fills the void created by unmet needs. And instead of meeting these needs, the tools and approaches of time management often feed the addiction. They keep us focused on daily prioritization of the urgent."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"When we talk about time management, it seems ridiculous to worry about speed before direction, about saving minutes when we may be wasting years."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

"More important than how fast you’re going, is where you’re headed."

- Stephen Covey, First Things First

Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Whenever you’re ready, here are four ways I can help you be more productive, find more balance and live life more on purpose…

Curious? Discover how productive you really are… Take this free, 2-minute assessment to unlock your PQ and discover the top 25 habits you need to get big things done. Take the 2-minute quiz →
Overwhelmed? Get a free chapter of my book… Let me show you how to beat procrastination, permanently, with this free sneak peek inside TAoL’s ultimate productivity primer. Download your free chapter →
Stuck? Grab a 90-Day TRACKTION Planner… Get the tool thousands trust to help them take control of their time, master their habits and hit goals in every part of their lives. Order your 90-day planner →
Burned out? Join the TRACKTION Community… Take the 6-week masterclass, get weekly group coaching, find accountability partners and connect with like-minded self-starters. Get started FREE →