Fire and Knowledge

If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to live me and each other — while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity and insincerity — then, in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do — even using so-called good human relations techniques — will be perceived as manipulative.

It simply makes no difference how good the rhetoric is or even how good the intentions are; if there is little or no trust, there is no foundation for permanent success. Only basic goodness gives life to technique.

—Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 21.