Stephen Covey (Stephen Richards Covey) Quotes

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree. "What are you doing?" you ask. "Can't you see?" comes the impatient reply. "I'm sawing down this tree." "You look exhausted!" you exclaim. "How long have you been at it?" "Over five hours," he returns, "and I'm beat! This is hard work." 'Well, why don't you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?" you inquire. "I'm sure it would go a lot faster." "I don't have time to sharpen the saw," the man says emphatically. "I'm too busy sawing!"

Stephen Covey

• Long
• Action
• Tree
• Busy
• Exhausted
• Impatient

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Quotes to Explore

• Chinese people age overnight.

  

  Karl Pilkington
  • People
  • Age
  • Chinese

• I've no regrets at all, but I still think at times that I would have loved to play in England. You live football over there; it's a great culture. People respect you more; it's more difficult to find respect in Spain. There is more criticism here.

  

  Xavi
  • People
  • Great
  • Live

• When I come up against a director who has a concept that I don't agree with, or maybe I just haven't thought of it or whatever, I'd be more prone to go with them than my own because I want to be out of control as an actor, I want them to have the control, otherwise it's going to become predictably my work, and that's not fun.

  

  Jack Nicholson
  • Up
  • Work
  • Fun

• What I particularly like about Broadway is the camaraderie and the friendship of other people in other shows. Everybody knows you're opening and cares about you. There's a real village atmosphere.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • People
  • Real
  • Friendship

• We have these old fashioned ideas. For instance, here in America, we talk about democracy - but we don't have a democracy. There are elements of a democracy.

  

  Wadada Leo Smith
  • America
  • Ideas
  • Democracy

• Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. If you look at it to admire it, you are lost.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • Work
  • Done
  • Think

• I don't mind doing the green-screen stuff at all, and in fact it's a lot like black-box theater, which I did plenty of in New York.

  

  Gabriel Macht
  • Mind
  • Black
  • Doing

• The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.

  

  Dag Hammarskjold
  • You
  • Better
  • Listen

• I wrote a song several years ago while I was in college called 'Muscadine Wine.' I really didn't know if it had potential or not, if it was good or bad or what. I played it for my roommates - who I played ball with - one night, and I knew they would tell me the truth. They loved it, and that encouraged me.

  

  Sam Hunt
  • Good
  • Truth
  • Bad

• In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning.

  

  Carl Sandburg
  • Society
  • Eyes
  • Morning

• There was a rule, back when I was an education lawyer in Alabama, about visiting public schools: always go on a rainy day so you can see how badly the roofs leak.

  

  Adam Cohen
  • Education
  • Day
  • Lawyer

• I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.

  

  J. D. Salinger
  • Love
  • Myself
  • Pleasure

• I think what's wrong with the fashion world, particularly men's fashion, is the lack of creativity behind it.

  

  Benjamin Hammond "Ben" Haggerty
  • World
  • Men
  • Fashion

• The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.

  

  J. D. Salinger
  • Joy

• I am sorry that my convictions do not allow me to repeat my friend’s offer, said one of the others. But I have had to abandon the humanitarian and egalitarian fancies. His name was Mr. Neo-Classical.

  

  C. S. Lewis
  • Friend
  • Sorry

• The pursuit of wealth generally diverts men of great talents and strong passions from the pursuit of power; and it frequently happens that a man does not undertake to direct the fortunes of the state until he has shown himself incompetent to conduct his own.

  

  Alexis de Tocqueville
  • Great
  • Men
  • Power

• I am not yet born; forgive meFor the sins that in me the world shall commit, my wordsWhen they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,My treason engendered by traitors beyond me,My life when they murder by means of myHands, my death when they live me.

  

  Louis MacNeice
  • Life
  • World
  • Live

• What's so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you're constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that.

  

  Billy Crystal
  • Life
  • Time
  • Great

• Right before I graduated from the national theatre school, I got the part of Roxie Hart in 'Chicago' in Copenhagen. That led to me playing it here in London. I was 26 when I came over for that. It was the first thing I did as a professional, and it is still the experience of my life.

  

  Birgitte Hjort Sorensen
  • Life
  • School
  • Experience

• I'm a businesswoman, and Ms. is an appropriate form of address.

  

  Letitia Baldrige

• L.A. is such a car-driven city, and it's great to see so many people - I think people are hungry to get on their bikes and get out of their cars and get off of oil and save money and save the environment.

  

  Austin Nichols
  • People
  • Great
  • Money

• I'm a shoe girl.

  

  Melanie Fiona Hallim
  • Girl

• Poverty is, except where there is an actual want of food and raiment, a thing much more imaginary than real. The shame of poverty--the shame of being thought poor--it is a great and fatal weakness, though arising in this country, from the fashion of the times themselves.

  

  William Cobbett
  • Country
  • Real
  • Fashion

• Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree. "What are you doing?" you ask. "Can't you see?" comes the impatient reply. "I'm sawing down this tree." "You look exhausted!" you exclaim. "How long have you been at it?" "Over five hours," he returns, "and I'm beat! This is hard work." 'Well, why don't you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?" you inquire. "I'm sure it would go a lot faster." "I don't have time to sharpen the saw," the man says emphatically. "I'm too busy sawing!"

  

  Stephen Covey
  • Long
  • Action
  • Tree