Time & Perspective Quote by Stephen Covey

Covey’s line is self-help with a suit and tie: it flatters the listener into adulthood by drawing a hard border between impulse and agency. “We are not animals” isn’t biology; it’s a moral posture. He’s rejecting the excuse culture of reflexes - the idea that stress, temperament, upbringing, or “that’s just how I am” gets to run the company. In a corporate context, that’s not just inspirational, it’s managerial: if choice is always available, then accountability is always on the table.

The phrasing does two strategic things. First, it names the most common alibi (“what has happened to us in our past”) and swats it away in a single sentence, compressing therapy-speak into something boardroom-friendly. Second, it relocates power from the environment to the individual. That move is clean, energizing, and a little dangerous. Clean because it offers a simple lever: change the choice, change the outcome. Dangerous because it can sound like a rebuke to trauma, inequality, or mental illness - as if context is just background noise. Covey’s intent, though, is less denial than refocusing: you can’t rewrite history, but you can manage your response.

This sits squarely in late-20th-century American productivity culture, where personal development gets translated into performance. The subtext: you may not control the market, your boss, or your childhood, but you can control your next decision - and you’ll be judged by it. The appeal is obvious: it sells freedom in a world that feels increasingly determined.