Miguel Ruiz Quotes & Sayings

This is the first step in using the truth as a scalpel: You find that the injustice that created a wound is no longer true, right now, in this moment. You discover that perhaps what you believe hurt you so badly was never true. Even if it was true, it doesn't mean that now it is true. By using the truth, you open the wound and see the injustice from a new perspective. — Miguel Ruiz

Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers of all time, took his whole life to get to the point where he said, As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. — Miguel Ruiz

That is why every brother and sister will react differently according to how they learn to defend themselves and adapt to different circumstances. When our parents are constantly fighting, when there is disharmony, disrespect, and lies, we learn the emotional way of being like them. — Miguel Ruiz

Say no when you want to say no, and yes when you want to say yes. You have the right to be you. 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. That's a seed that you should really nurture in your mind. You don't need knowledge or great philosophical concepts. You don't need the acceptance of others. You express your own divinity by being alive and by loving yourself and others. It is an expression of God to say, Hey, I love you. — Miguel Ruiz

You don't need to worship idols of the Virgin Mary, the Christ, or the Buddha. You can if you want to; if it feels good, do it. Your own body is a manifestation of God, — Miguel Ruiz

What we believe possesses us, and thus too often it overwhelms love - the truth of us. — Miguel Ruiz

It's not true for the plants or the animals. It's not true for the stars or the trees, or for the rest of nature. It's only true for humans. — Miguel Ruiz

For thousands of years we have been searching for happiness. Happiness is the lost paradise. Humans have worked so hard to reach this point, and this is part of the evolution of the mind. This is the future of humanity. This way of life is possible, and it's in your hands. Moses called it the Promised Land, Buddha called it Nirvana, Jesus called it Heaven, and the Toltecs call it a New Dream. Unfortunately, — Miguel Ruiz

You find that the injustice that created a wound is no longer true, right now, in this moment. — Miguel Ruiz

When you go into the desert you meet your demons face-to-face. After coming out of the desert, all those demons become angels. — Miguel Ruiz

If others say one thing, but do another, you are lying to yourself if you don't listen to their actions. But if you are truthful with yourself, you will save yourself a lot of emotional pain. Telling yourself the truth about it may hurt, but you don't need to be attached to the pain. Healing is on the way, and it's just a matter of time before things will be better for you. — Miguel Ruiz

People are starving for love, not knowing their heart is a magical kitchen. Open your heart. Open your magical kitchen and refuse to walk around the world begging for love. In your heart is all the love you need. Your heart can create any amount of love, not just for yourself, but for the whole world.
— Miguel Ruiz

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. — Miguel Ruiz

Today I will be impeccable with my word, I will not take anything personally, I will not make any assumptions, and I am going to do my best. — Miguel Ruiz

Say only what you mean. — Miguel Ruiz

THE THIRD AGREEMENT Don't Make Assumptions — Miguel Ruiz

To be Toltec is a way of life. It is a way of life where there are no leaders and no followers, where you have your own truth and live your own truth. A Toltec becomes wise, becomes wild, and becomes free again. — Miguel Ruiz

A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself. Everything you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself is a sin. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself for anything. Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself. — Miguel Ruiz

Let everything we do and say be an expression of the beauty in our heart, always based on love. — Miguel Ruiz

Someone can intentionally send emotional poison, and if you don't take it personally, you will not eat it. When you don't take the emotional poison, it becomes even worse to the sender, but not in you. — Miguel Ruiz

Most of the time when we tell our children how to live their lives, it's because we don't respect them. We feel sorry for them, and we try to do for them what they should do for themselves. — Miguel Ruiz

Words don't need to be spoken to devastate. They have only to be thought. Words band together to form opinions, which strut along the back roads of our minds, inciting doubt and controversy. Opinions rally toward a cause - a belief. — Miguel Ruiz

We were brought into this world as authentic beings, and then we began to practice "who we are" until it became a mastery. At any stage in our adult lives we can unpractice; we can let go of our attachments to an identity . . . and we can be. — Miguel Ruiz

And he realized that everyone was dreaming, but without awareness, without knowing what they really are. — Miguel Ruiz

He had spent a lifetime cleansing his mind of poison. He had searched his heart, found the corruption, and removed it. He had torn away the lies - lies he'd been told and had believed, and lies he had devised and used against himself. This was his mastery - the purification of the mind and the recovery of authenticity. This scene symbolized the mastery of death, the awakening. — Miguel Ruiz

Imagine living your life without the fear of being judged by others. You no longer rule your behavior according to what others may think about you. You are no longer responsible for anyone's opinion. You have no need to control anyone, and no one controls you, either. — Miguel Ruiz

People who love us do black magic on us, but they don't know what they do. That is why we must forgive them; they don't know what they do. — Miguel Ruiz

After domestication, we try to be good enough for everybody else, but we are no longer good enough for ourselves, because we can never live up to our image of perfection. — Miguel Ruiz

The result of practicing the fifth agreement is the complete acceptance of yourself just the way you are, and the complete acceptance of everybody else just the way they are. The reward is your eternal happiness. — Miguel Ruiz

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

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 pressures of a relationship had brought out old fears, the fears of a dejected adolescent. Euphoria and anger still played against each other, and the result was considerable drama in a dream that should have felt safe. — Miguel Ruiz

Personal freedom comes from embodying intent, love, and gratitude... this is the mastery of life. — Miguel Ruiz

The agreement is so strong that even if we understand the concept of it not being true, we feel the blame, the guilt, and the shame that occur if we go against these rules. — Miguel Ruiz

Being impeccable with your word is the correct use of your energy; it means to use your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself. — Miguel Ruiz

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

You are divine, you are perfect, but as an artist, you create your own story and you have the illusion that the story is real. You live your life by justifying that story. And by justifying the story, you are wasting your life. — Miguel Ruiz

You are immortal; you've existed for billions of years in different manifestations, because you are Life, and Life cannot die. You are in the trees, the butterflies, the fish, the air, the moon, the sun. Wherever you go, you are there, waiting for yourself. — Miguel Ruiz

Life brings to you exactly what you need. There is perfect justice in hell. There is nothing to blame. We can even say that our suffering is a gift. If you just open your eyes and see what is around you, it's exactly what you need to clean your poison, to heal your wounds, to accept yourself, and to get out of hell. — Miguel Ruiz

There is no need to justify what we are. there is no need to work hard to become what we are not. we just need to return to our intergrity, to the way we were before we learned to speak. perfect. as little children, we are authentic. only the present time is real for us; wo don't care about the past, and we aren't worried about the future. we enjoy life; we want to explore and have fun. nobody teaches us to be that way; we are born that way. — Miguel Ruiz

THE FIRST AGREEMENT Be Impeccable with Your Word THE FIRST AGREEMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE and also the most difficult one to honor. It is so important that with just this first agreement you will be able to transcend to the level of existence I call heaven on earth. 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

We practice and practice, and we master how to be what we are not. — Miguel Ruiz

The big difference between a warrior and a victim is that the victim represses, and the warrior refrains. Victims repress because they are afraid to show the emotions, afraid to say what they want to say. To refrain is not the same thing as repression. To refrain is to hold the emotions and to express them in the right moment, not before, not later. That is why warriors are impeccable. They have complete control over their own emotions and therefore over their own behavior. — Miguel Ruiz

Just to be alive is enough. — Miguel Ruiz

Humans hardly know what they want, how they want it, or when they want it. — Miguel Ruiz

Humans are born in truth, but we grow up believing in lies. one of the biggest lies in the story of humanity is the lie of our imperfection. — Miguel Ruiz

Whatever people do, feel, think, or say, don't take it personally. If they tell you how wonderful you are, they are not saying that because of you. You know you are wonderful. It is not necessary to believe other people who tell you that you are wonderful. Don't take anything personally. — Miguel Ruiz

What kind of messenger are you? — Miguel Ruiz

How many times do we pay for one mistake? The answer is thousands of times. The human is the only animal on earth that pays a thousand times for the same mistake. The rest of the animals pay once for every mistake they make. But not us. We have a powerful memory. We make a mistake, we judge ourselves, we find ourselves guilty, and we punish ourselves. If justice exists, then that was enough; we don't need to do it again. But every time we remember, we judge ourselves again, we are guilty again, and we punish ourselves again, and again, and again. If we have a wife or husband he or she also reminds us of the mistake, so we can judge ourselves again, punish ourselves again, and find ourselves guilty again. Is this fair? — Miguel Ruiz

If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself? — Miguel Ruiz

You may even tell me, "Miguel, what you are saying is hurting me." But 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. — Miguel Ruiz

Life is full of choices," Miguel said sweetly. "Do you want to choose unhappiness? — Miguel Ruiz

You are here just to be, for no reason. You have no mission except to enjoy life, to be happy. The only thing you need is just to be the real you. Be authentic. Be the presence. Be happiness. Be love. Be joy. Be yourself; that's the main point. That's wisdom. — Miguel Ruiz

Very young children are not afraid to express what they feel. They are so loving that if they perceive love, they melt into love. They are not afraid to love at all. That is the description of a normal human being. — Miguel Ruiz

They are living in the moment. They are not ashamed of the past; they are not worried about the future. Little children express what they feel, and they are not afraid to love. — Miguel Ruiz

You have the right to live your own life, in your own way, and there is no wrong way. — Miguel Ruiz

In a relationship, we can pretend to be the same, to think the same, to feel the same, to dream the same, but there is no way that can happen. There are two dreamers with two dreams. — Miguel Ruiz

Often when you go into a relationship with someone you like, you have to justify why you like that person. You only see what you want to see and you deny there are things you don't like about that person. You lie to yourself just to make yourself right. Then you make assumptions, and one of the assumptions is "My love will change this person." But this is not true. Your love will not change anybody. If others change, it's because they want to change, not because you can change them. Then something happens between the two of you, and you get hurt. Suddenly you see what you didn't want to see before, only now it is amplified by your emotional poison. Now you have to justify your emotional pain and blame them for your choices. — Miguel Ruiz

Humans punish themselves endlessly for not being what they believe
they should be. They become very self-abusive, and they use other people to abuse themselves as well. — Miguel Ruiz

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

Angel means messenger. I dedicate this book to the angels in human form that deliver a message of love instead of fear, superstition, and emotional poison. To — Miguel Ruiz

To become masters of love, we have to practice love. The art of relationship is also a whole mastery, and the only way to reach mastery is with practice. — Miguel Ruiz

Humans hunt for love. We feel that we need that love because we believe we don't have love, because we don't love ourselves. We hunt for love in other humans just like us, expecting to get love from them when these humans are in the same condition as we are. They don't love themselves either, so how much love can we get from them? We merely create a bigger need that isn't real; we keep hunting and hunting, but in the wrong place, because other humans don't have the love we need. — Miguel Ruiz

Gossiping has become the main form of communication in human society. It has become the way we feel close to each other, because it makes us feel better to see someone else feel as badly as we do. — Miguel Ruiz

What you will see is love coming out of the trees, love coming out of the sky, love coming out of the light. You will perceive love from everything around you. This is the state of bliss. — Miguel Ruiz

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourslef or to gossip about others. Use your power of your word in the direction of truth and love. — Miguel Ruiz

God is life. God is life in action. The best way to say, "I love you, God," is to live your life doing your best. 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

Just your existence proves the existence of God. — Miguel Ruiz

PRELUDE TO A NEW DREAM — Miguel Ruiz

Consider how many times you have gossiped about the person you love the most to gain the support of others for your point of view. How many times have you hooked other people's attention, and spread poison about your loved one in order to make your opinion right? Your opinion is nothing but your point of view. It is not necessarily true. Your opinion comes from your beliefs, your own ego, and your own dream. We create all this poison and spread it to others just so we can feel right about our own point of view. — Miguel Ruiz

We are so well trained that we are our own domesticator. We are an autodomesticated animal. We can now domesticate ourselves according to the same belief system we were given, and using the same system of punishment and reward. We punish ourselves when we don't follow the rules according to our belief system; we reward ourselves when we are the "good boy" or "good girl". — Miguel Ruiz

Whatever happens around you, don't take it personally ... Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. — Miguel Ruiz

Being a lover is part of the warrior's life, maestro. You would do well to consider that. A lover must stay alert and prepared for action. — Miguel Ruiz

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.
— Miguel Ruiz

When we try to describe the truth with words, we distort it and it's no longer truth
it's our story. The story may be true for us, but that doesn't mean it's true for anyone else. — Miguel Ruiz

Humans believe in so many lies that even the smallest thing becomes a big dream that makes us suffer. Usually it's just a judgment, and mainly it's a self-judgment: 'Poor me. Look what happened to me when I was nine years old. Look what happened to me last night!" Well, whatever happened in your past is not truth anymore. It could be the most horrible thing, but right now it's not the truth, because right now is the only truth you live in. Whatever happened in your past is in the virtual reality, and whatever happened to your body was healed long ago, but the mind can make you suffer and live in shame for years. — Miguel Ruiz

It is when we lose control that we repress the emotions, not when we are in control. — Miguel Ruiz

Everything in existence is a manifestation of the one living being we call God. Everything is God. — Miguel Ruiz

The real you is still a little child who never grew up. Sometimes that little child comes out when you are having fun or playing, when you feel happy, when you are painting, or writing poetry, or playing the piano, or expressing yourself in some way. These are the happiest moments of your life - when the real you comes out, when you don't care about the past and you don't worry about the future. You are childlike. — Miguel Ruiz

Ninety-five percent of the beliefs we have stored in our minds are nothing but lies, and we suffer because we believe all these lies. — Miguel Ruiz

If you understand the first agreement, be impeccable with your word, you begin to see all the changes that can happen in your life. Changes first in the way you deal with yourself, and later in the way you deal with other people, especially those you love the most. — Miguel Ruiz

She did not need Miguel to explain that love, unconditional and unremitting, is the essence of life. She knew well that love based on conditions is a twisted copy of the truth, and yet it is there that humanity plays - there, in the shade of a metaphorical tree that wavers like a sullen mirage and scatters the seeds of a million lies. — Miguel Ruiz

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

If you dishonor an agreement, learn from the experience and do your best next time. It is an act of grace to forgive. It is an act of love to offer yourself another chance. — Miguel Ruiz

Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art. — Miguel Ruiz

Mastery of Awareness. This is to be aware of who we really are, with all the possibilities. The second is the Mastery of Transformation - how to change, how to be free of domestication. The third is the Mastery of Intent. Intent from the Toltec point of view is that part of life that makes transformation of energy possible; it is the one living being that seamlessly encompasses all energy, or what we call "God." Intent is life itself; it is unconditional love. The Mastery of Intent is therefore the Mastery of Love. — Miguel Ruiz

Making assumptions and then taking them personally is the beginning of hell in this world. Almost all of our conflicts are based on this, and it's easy to understand why. Assumptions are nothing more than lies that we are telling ourselves. This creates a big drama for nothing, because we don't really know if something is true or not. Making assumptions is just looking for drama when there's no drama happening. And if drama is happening in someone else's story, so what? It's not your story; it's someone else's story. — Miguel Ruiz

She didn't notice that she used black magic and put a spell on her daughter. She didn't know the power of her word, and therefore she isn't to blame. — Miguel Ruiz

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. — Miguel Ruiz

Your nature is to love; remember your nature. If you are acting against your nature, you're pretending to be another species. You've pretended so long that you actually are another species. Awareness means seeing, and remembering, the truth - it never went away. It never was gone, but your attention has been on the lies. — Miguel Ruiz

You can be loving all the time. This is your choice. You may not have a reason to love, but you can love because love makes you so happy. Love in action only produces happiness. — Miguel Ruiz

people call magic is power in action." "Action! — Miguel Ruiz

When you have self-love, you no longer live your life according to other people's opinions. You don't need other people to accept you or tell you how good you are, because you know what you are. With self-love, you aren't afraid to share your love because your heart is completely open. Today can be the day when you experience the beauty of yourself. Today can be the day when you reconnect with your own spirit and express all the love in your heart. Focus your attention on what you are feeling in this moment. Feel the desire to be alive, the desire for love and joy, the desire to create something wonderful to share with others. The biggest mission you have is to make yourself happy, and to share your love, your joy, and your happiness. — Miguel Ruiz

You were born with the right to be happy. You were born with the right to love, to enjoy and to share your love. You are alive, so take your life and enjoy it. Don't resist life passing through you, because that is God passing through you. Just your existence proves the existence of God. Your existence proves the existence of life and energy. — Miguel Ruiz

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 ... when someone can touch a wound and it no longer hurts you then you know you have truly forgiven. — Miguel Ruiz

Becoming aware of these habits and understanding the importance of this agreement is the first step. But understanding its importance is not enough. Information or an idea is merely the seed in your mind. What will really make the difference is action. Taking the action over and over again strengthens your will, nurtures the seed, and establishes a solid foundation for the new habit to grow. After many repetitions these new agreements will become second nature, and you will see how the magic of your word transforms you from a black magician into a white magician. A — Miguel Ruiz

Whatever people think of you is really about the image they have of you, and that image isn't you. — Miguel Ruiz

There is another part of us that receives the judgments, and this part is called the Victim. The Victim carries the blame, the guilt, and the shame. It is the part of us that says, "Poor me, I'm not good enough, I'm not intelligent enough, I'm not attractive enough, I'm not worthy of love, poor me." The big Judge agrees and says, "Yes, you are not good enough." And this is all based on a belief system that we never chose to believe. — Miguel Ruiz

How can you ask for something you don't think you deserve? — Miguel Ruiz

You must forgive those who hurt you, even if whatever they did to you is unforgivable in your mind. You will forgive them not because they deserve to be forgiven, but because you don't want to suffer and hurt yourself every time you — Miguel Ruiz