Put First Things First Quotes

• Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Habit 3: Put First Things First Habit 4: Think Win/Win Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Habit 6: Synergize Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

  Stephen Covey

  Winning, Thinking, Mind

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• How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?

  William Golding

  Firsts, First Things First, Ifs

  William Golding (1954). “Lord of the Flies”, p.57, Penguin

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• The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

  Stephen Covey

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Life Changing

  Stephen R. Covey (2016). “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition”, p.198, Mango Media Inc.

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• Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first & we lose both first and second things.

  C. S. Lewis

  Firsts, Thrown, Loses

  "The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950 - 1963".

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• Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  Attributed to Goethe by Johannes Falk in "Goethe aus näherm persönlichen Umgange dargestellt", 1832.

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• I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure - which is: Try to please everybody.

  Herbert Bayard Swope

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  335 Copy quote

• Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success

  Stephen Covey

  Leadership, Climbing Up, Top Management

  Stephen R. Covey (2016). “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition”, p.120, Mango Media Inc.

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• Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.

  Stephen Covey

  Inspirational, Priorities In Life, Important

  Stephen R. Covey (2012). “The Wisdom and Teachings of Stephen R. Covey”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

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• You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.

  Stephen Covey

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Stephen R. Covey (2013). “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change”, p.165, Simon and Schuster

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• Not long ago I heard a Navy chaplain refer to the sage advice of the Apostle to put first things first...If we are to heed the admonition to put first things first...one of the main essentials which lies at the very beginning of civilization is that of security.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Lying, Long Ago, Civilization

  7 Copy quote

• The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

  Stephen Covey

  Inspirational, Basketball, Perseverance

  Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill (1995). “First Things First”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

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• You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first.

  C. S. Lewis

  Firsts, First Things First

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.310, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.

  C. S. Lewis

  Firsts, First Things First

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.141, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• God wants us to prosper. Our need, however, is to evaluate things as they should be evaluated - to esteem earthly things lightly - to put first things first.

  Kenneth E. Hagin

  Needs, Want, Firsts

  132 Copy quote

• Organize and execute around priorities.

  Stephen Covey

  Priorities, Organize

  Stephen R. Covey (1994). “Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day”, p.367, Simon and Schuster

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• Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: the clock and the compass. The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities - what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction - what we feel is important and how we lead our lives. In an effort to close the gap between the clock and the compass in our lives, many of us turn to the field of "time management."

  Stephen Covey

  Powerful, Struggle, Commitment

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• We women ought to put first things first. Why should we mind if men have their faces on the money, as long as we get our hands on it?

  Ivy Baker Priest

  Men, Hands, Long

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• A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with-that's poverty-but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you're clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it's clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. (148)

  Victoria Moran

  Commitment, Simple, Priorities

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• No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

  Andrew Carnegie

  Inspirational, Leadership, Confidence

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• Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

  Peter Drucker

  Inspirational, Change, Leadership

  "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey, (p. 101), 1989.

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  Begin with the end in mind.

  Stephen Covey

  Inspirational, Success, Determination

  Stephen R. Covey (2000). “Vision: Defining Your Destiny in Life”, Franklincovey

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• First things first, second things never.

  Shirley Conran

  Firsts, First Things First

  Shirley Conran (1978). “Superwoman”, Outlet

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• Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

  Stephen Covey

  Love, Inspirational, Relationship

  Stephen R. Covey (2013). “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change”, p.267, Simon and Schuster

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• Put First Things First! These four words cover an entire philosophy which can be applied with profit by every business leader, by every executive and by every employee.

  Thomas Watson, Jr.

  Leadership, Business, Philosophy

  8 Copy quote

• The enemy of the "best" is often the "good."

  Stephen Covey

  Inspiration, Priorities In Life, Enemy

  Stephen R. Covey (2016). “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition”, p.191, Mango Media Inc.

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