The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)

by Miguel Ruiz

it is most accurately described as a way of life, distinguished by the ready accessibility of happiness and love.

We can perceive millions of things simultaneously, but using our attention, we can hold whatever we want to perceive in the foreground of our mind.

These beliefs are so strong, that even years later when we are exposed to new concepts and try to make our own decisions, we find that these beliefs still control our lives.

True injustice is paying more than once for each mistake.

But every time we remember, we judge ourselves again, we are guilty again, and we punish ourselves again, and again, and again.

If we look at human society we see a place so difficult to live in because it is ruled by fear.

If we compare the dream of human society with the description of hell that religions all around the world have promulgated, we find they are exactly the same.

We cannot see who we truly are; we cannot see that we are not free.

We create this image, but this image is not real. We are never going to be perfect from this point of view. Never!

We are so afraid that somebody else will notice that we are not what we pretend to be.

In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself. And the limit of your self-abuse is exactly the limit that you will tolerate from someone else.

Every human mind is fertile, but only for those kinds of seeds it is prepared for.

When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.

If I love myself I will express that love in my interactions with you, and then I am being impeccable with the word, because that action will produce a like reaction.

Everything changed in the little girl because of this new agreement: She believed she must repress her emotions in order to be accepted and loved.

That is why we must forgive them; they don’t know what they do.

Your opinion is nothing but your point of view. It is not necessarily true.

Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about “me.”

All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in.

When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.

When you take things personally, then you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts.

it is not what I am saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said.

yourself. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves.

You will find that you don’t need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.