The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

by Miguel Ruiz

Whatever you think, whatever you feel, I know is your problem and not my problem. It is the way you see the world.

When everything around you is great, everything makes you happy. You are loving everything that is around you, because you are loving yourself. Because you like the way you are.

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

Telling yourself the truth about it may hurt, but you don’t need to be attached to the pain.

If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn’t walk away, you will surely endure many years of suffering with him or her. Walking away may hurt for a while, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you really want. You will find that you don’t need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.

You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you.

We create a lot of emotional poison just by making assumptions and taking it personally, because usually we start gossiping about our assumptions.

It is always better to ask questions than to make an assumption, because assumptions set us up for suffering.

So even before others have a chance to reject us, we have already rejected ourselves. That is the way the human mind works.

Real love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.

The way to keep yourself from making assumptions is to ask questions.

The day you stop making assumptions you will communicate cleanly and clearly, free of emotional poison.

Once you forgive yourself, the self-rejection in your mind is over.

Forgiveness is the key. You will know you have forgiven someone when you see them and you no longer have an emotional reaction.

When someone can touch what used to be a wound and it no longer hurts you, then you know you have truly forgiven.