57 Profound Quotes from The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Nothing is free in life,least of all happiness.And, even if we work for it we cannot be happy all the time and that's okay.But if we make a few agreements with ourselves we can increase the frequency and duration of our periods of happiness.

In the book The Four Agreements Miguel Ruiz teaches us some of the ways we can earn the happiness that we are so in need.This book is a slow but a VERY effective solution to getting out of depression.The last agreement can lead to lots of material success.

This is one of my favorite books.I wish I had read it 10 years ago.

Here are the quotes I like:

''Dreaming is the main function of the mind, and the mind dreams twenty-four hours a day.It dreams when the brain is awake, and it also dreams when the brain is asleep.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 
                     

''That is why humans resist life. To be alive is the biggest fear humans have.Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive — the risk to be alive and express what we really are. Just being ourselves is the biggest fear of humans.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''We judge others according to our image of perfection as well, and naturally they fall short of our expectations.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Nobody abuses us more than we abuse ourselves, and it is the Judge, the Victim, and the belief system that make us do this. True, we find people who say their husband or wife, or mother or father, abused them, but you know that we abuse ourselves much more than that. The way we judge ourselves is the worst judge that ever existed. If we make a mistake in front of people, we try to deny the mistake and cover it up. But as soon as we are alone, the Judge becomes so strong, the guilt is so strong, and we feel so stupid, or so bad, or so unworthy.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''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. If someone abuses you a little more than you abuse yourself, you will probably walk away from that person. But if someone abuses you a little less than you abuse yourself, you will probably stay in the relationship and tolerate it endlessly.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''If you abuse yourself very badly, you can even tolerate someone who beats you up, humiliates you, and treats you like dirt. Why? Because in your belief system you say, 'I deserve it. This person is doing me a favor by being with me.I’m not worthy of love and respect. I’m not good enough.' ''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves; it is why we don’t accept ourselves the way we are, and why we don’t accept others the way they are.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''The first agreement is to be impeccable with your word. It sounds very simple,but it is very, very powerful.Why your word? Your word is the power that you have to create. Your word is the gift that comes directly from God. The Gospel of John in the Bible, speaking of the creation of the universe, says, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word is God.” Through the word you express your creative power. It is through the word that you manifest everything. Regardless of what language you speak, your intent manifests through the word. What you dream, what you feel, and what you really are, will all be manifested through the word.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''All the magic you possess is based on your word. Your word is pure magic, and misuse of your word is black magic.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''The word is the most powerful tool you have as a human; it is the tool of magic. But like a sword with two edges, your word can create the most beautiful dream, or your word can destroy everything around you.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''The word is so powerful that one word can change a life or destroy the lives of millions of people.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Every human is a magician, and we can either put a spell on someone with our word or we can release someone from a spell. We cast spells all the time with our opinions.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Self-rejection is the biggest sin that you commit.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''The word is the magic that humans possess and misuse of the word is black magic, we are using black magic all the time without knowing that our word is magic at all.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''The truth is the most important part of being impeccable with your word. On one side of the sword are the lies which create black magic, and on the other side of the sword is the truth which has the power to break the spell of black magic. Only the truth will set us free.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Gossip is black magic at its very worst because it is pure poison. We learned how to gossip by agreement. When we were children, we heard the adults around us gossiping all the time, openly giving their opinions about other people.They even had opinions about people they didn’t know. Emotional poison was transferred along with the opinions, and we learned this as the normal way to communicate.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''What we don’t see is that misuse of our word is putting us deeper into hell.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Be impeccable with your word. This is the first agreement that you should make if you want to be free, if you want to be happy, if you want to transcend the level of existence that is hell. It is very powerful. Use the word in the correct way. Use the word to share your love.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Impeccability of the word can lead you to personal freedom, to huge success and abundance; it can take away all fear and transform it into joy and love.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds. Their point of view comes from all the programming they received during domestication.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''If you get mad at me, I know you are dealing with yourself. I am the excuse for you to get mad. And you get mad because you are afraid, because you are dealing with fear. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will get mad at me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will hate me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will be jealous or sad.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves. You have to trust yourself and choose to believe or not to believe what someone says to you.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''When we really see other people as they are without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do. Even if others lie to you, it is okay. They are lying to you because they are afraid. They are afraid you will discover that they are not perfect.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''When you make it a strong habit not to take anything personally, you avoid many upsets in your life. Your anger, jealousy, and envy will disappear, and even your sadness will simply disappear if you don’t take things personally.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Write this agreement on paper, and put it on your refrigerator to remind you all the time: Don’t take anything personally.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are only responsible for you. When you truly understand this, and refuse to take things personally, you can hardly be hurt by the careless comments or actions of others.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''We only see what we want to see, and hear what we want to hear. We don’t perceive things the way they are. We have the habit of dreaming with no basis in reality. We literally dream things up in our imaginations. Because we don’t understand something,we make an assumption about the meaning, and when the truth comes out, the bubble of our dream pops and we find out it was not what we thought it was at all.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''We make the assumption that everyone sees life the way we do. We assume that others think the way we think, feel the way we feel, judge the way we judge,and abuse the way we abuse. This is the biggest assumption that humans make.And this is why we have a fear of being ourselves around others. Because we think everyone else will judge us, victimize us, abuse us, and blame us as we do ourselves. So even before others have a chance to reject us, we have already rejected ourselves. That is the way the human mind works.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''We don’t need to justify love; it is there or not there. Real love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them. If we try to change them, this means we don’t really like them.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Find someone whom you don’t have to change at all. It is much easier to find someone who is already the way you want him or her to be, instead of trying to change that person. Also, that person must love you just the way you are, so he or she doesn’t have to change you at all. If others feel they have to change you, that means they really don’t love you just the way you are. So why be with someone if you’re not the way he or she wants you to be?''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''If you don’t understand something, it is better for you to ask and be clear, instead of making an assumption. The day you stop making assumptions you will communicate cleanly and clearly, free of emotional poison. Without making assumptions your word becomes impeccable.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''You are not here to sacrifice your joy or your life. You are here to live, to be happy, and to love. If you can do your best in two hours of meditation, but you spend eight hours instead, you will only grow tired, miss the point, and you won’t enjoy your life. Do your best, and perhaps you will learn that no matter how long you meditate, you can live, love, and be happy.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Most people go to work every day just thinking of payday, and the money they will get from the work they are doing. They can hardly wait for Friday or Saturday, whatever day they receive their money and can take time off. They are working for the reward, and as a result they resist work. They try to avoid the action and it becomes more difficult, and they don’t do their best.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''If you take action just for the sake of doing it, without expecting a reward, you will find that you enjoy every action you do. Rewards will come, but you are not attached to the reward. You can even get more than you would have imagined for yourself without expecting a reward. If we like what we do, if we always do our best, then we are really enjoying life. We are having fun, we don’t get bored, we don’t have frustrations.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''When you do your best you learn to accept yourself. But you have to be aware and learn from your mistakes. Learning from your mistakes means you practice, look honestly at the results, and keep practicing. This increases your awareness.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''If you take action because you have to, then there is no way you are going to do your best. Then it is better not to do it. No, you do your best because doing your best all the time makes you so happy. When you are doing your best just for the pleasure of doing it, you are taking action because you enjoy the action.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Action is about living fully. Inaction is the way that we deny life. Inaction is sitting in front of the television every day for years because you are afraid to be alive and to take the risk of expressing what you are. Expressing what you are is taking action. You can have many great ideas in your head, but what makes the difference is the action. Without action upon an idea, there will be no manifestation, no results, and no reward.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Taking action is being alive. It’s taking the risk to go out and express your dream.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''The best way to say, 'Thank you, God,' is by letting go of the past and living in the present moment, right here and now.Whatever life takes away from you, let it go. When you surrender and let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment. Letting go of the past means you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''There is no time to miss anyone or anything because you are alive. Not enjoying what is happening right now is living in the past and being only half alive. This leads to self-pity, suffering, and tears.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''You can only be you when you do your best. When you don’t do your best you are denying yourself the right to be you.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''By doing your best, the habits of misusing your word, taking things personally, and making assumptions will become weaker and less frequent with time. You don’t need to judge yourself, feel guilty, or punish yourself if you cannot keep these agreements. If you’re doing your best, you will feel good about yourself even if you still make assumptions, still take things personally, and still are not impeccable with your word.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''If you are impeccable with your word, if you don’t take anything personally, if you don’t make assumptions, if you always do your best, then you are going to have a beautiful life. You are going to control your life one hundred percent.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''The reward is to transcend the human experience of suffering, to become the embodiment of God. That is the reward.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Do not be concerned about the future; keep your attention on today, and stay in the present moment. Just live one day at a time.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''When you don’t care about the past and you don’t worry about the future. You are childlike.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Repetition makes the master.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''We must forgive those we feel have wronged us, not because they deserve to be forgiven, but because we love ourselves so much we don’t want to keep paying for the injustice.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''You will know you have forgiven someone when you see them and you no longer have an emotional reaction. You will hear the name of the person and you will have no 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.''
 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''Only love has the ability to put you in that state of bliss. Being in bliss is like being in love. Being in love is like being in bliss.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom 

''There is really no reason to suffer. The only reason you suffer is because you choose to suffer. If you look at your life you will find many excuses to suffer, but a good reason to suffer you will not find. The same is true for happiness. The only reason you are happy is because you choose to be happy. Happiness is a choice, and so is suffering.''

 ― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom