QuoteProject
Public behavior is merely private character writ large.
Stephen Covey
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Our public actions reflect our true character and values.

Stephen Covey's quote emphasizes that how we conduct ourselves in public is a direct extension of our private beliefs and principles. It suggests that authenticity in one’s character is revealed through outward behavior, and thus, our true selves are illuminated in the way we interact with the world around us.

Themes

CharacterPublic BehaviorIntegrityValues

In practice

Example use cases

In a workshop on leadership, someone might say, 'As Stephen Covey stated, public behavior is merely private character writ large, reminding us to lead with integrity.'

More from Stephen Covey

How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyRead
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.
Stephen CoveyRead
Listen with your eyes for feelings.
Stephen CoveyRead
If we live out of our memory, we're tied to the past and to that which is finite. When we live out of our imagination, _x000D_ we're tied to that which is infinite.
Stephen CoveyRead
Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.
Stephen CoveyRead
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.
Stephen CoveyRead

Similar quotes

I am one who has been acquainted with the night
Robert FrostRead
Justice is to be found only in the imagination.
Alfred NobelRead
Man is born an asocial and antisocial being. The newborn child is a savage. Egoism is his nature. Only the experience of life and the teachings of his parents, his brothers, sisters, playmates, and later of other people FORCE HIM to acknowledge the advantages of social cooperation and accordingly to change his behavior.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
The river and the sea can be kings of a hundred valleys, because they lie below them.
LaoziRead
It seems to me that terrestrial beings, as they become more autonomous, psychologically richer, shut themselves up in a way against one another, and at the same time gradually become strangers to the cosmic environment and currents, impenetrable to one another, and incapable of exteriorizing themselves.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.
George Bernard ShawRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.