Quotations by Don Miguel Ruiz
Don 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?”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else.”
~ Don 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.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
Best known for his book “The Four Agreements”, Don Miguel Ruiz is considered the go-to-guy for shamanistic and New Age spiritualist texts.
Don Miguel Ruiz quotes focus on positive thinking and personal development and behavior.
The Beginning
Born in 1952 in a poverty-stricken part of rural Mexico, Don Miguel Ruiz is the youngest of thirteen children.
His immediate family were healers and his parents hoped he would continue the family tradition, based on the old Toltec Traditions.
While Don Miguel Ruiz quotes his parents life and teachings as having a huge effect on him, as both a child and young adult, Ruiz chose to put his enviable education to a different use – joining medical school where his heart was set on becoming a surgeon.
Ruiz was not the only member of his family to take the traditional medicine route, several of Ruiz's brothers were already successful doctors and it is this that Don Miguel Ruiz says has been possibly “his biggest influence”, after all, who doesn't look up to their big brothers.
Ruiz became a popular and well-known neurosurgeon, enjoying several years practising with his older brothers.
However, quotes by Don Miguel Ruiz from the time seem to indicate he was already deeply interested in the human mind. He would tell his patients that he wanted to cure people's minds, as well as their physical brain. A near-fatal accident that almost cost Miguel Ruiz his life, immediately changed his perspective on life and what he wanted to do. He felt he had been given a second chance, and wanted to grab that change as enthusiastically as possible.
Don Miguel Ruiz quotes his near-death experience as being the exact point where his family's Toltec wisdom finally sunk in. So, he decided to return to his mother's instruction and become a shamen.
Don Miguel moved to America, where he would then spend the next 17 years researching and teaching ways to explore the human mind, how to push it to its absolute limits. He constantly strived to come up with new helpful resources for his students to help them learn as much as possible.
"If you take your happiness and put it in someone’s hands, sooner or later, she is going to break it. If you give your happiness to someone else, she can always take it away. Then if happiness can only come from inside of you and is the result of your love, you are responsible for your happiness.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“I will no longer allow anyone to manipulate my mind and control my life in the name of love”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“In any kind of relationship we can make the assumption that others know what we think, and we don’t have to say what we want. They are going to do what we want because they know us so well. If they don’t do what we want, what we assume they should do, we feel hurt and think, “How could you do that? You should know.” Again, we make the assumption that the other person knows what we want. A whole drama is created because we make this assumption and then put more assumptions on top of it. - Don't make assumptions.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“...Nothing that your partner does is personal. Your partner is dealing with her own garbage. If you don't take it personally, it will be so easy for you to have a wonderful relationship with your partner”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“Humans hardly know what they want, how they want it, or when they want it.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“Whenever we hear an opinion and believe it, we make an agreement, and it becomes part of our belief system.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“In the track of fear we have so many conditions, expectations, and obligations that we create a lot of rules just to protect ourselves against emotional pain, when the truth is that there shouldn't be any rules. These rules affect the quality of the channels of communication between us, because when we are afraid, we lie. If you have the expectation that I have to be a certain way, then I feel the obligation to be that way.The truth is I am bot what you want me to be. When I am honest and I am what I am, you are already hurt, you are mad. Then I lie to you, because I'm afraid of your judgment. I am afraid you are going to blame me, find me guilty, and punish me.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
"When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering"
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
His Work...
In 1997, Don Miguel Ruiz published what would become his most successful piece of work, his book “The Four Agreements”.
Don Miguel Ruiz quotes the book as advocating personal freedom from beliefs and agreements that create unhappiness and place limitations on a person's life. The book is about finding self-love, integrity and peace, by removing ourselves from the responsibility of taking on other people's problems.
The four agreements are -
1. Don' take anything personally
2. Don't make assumptions
3. Be impeccable with your word
4. Always do your best
The book was an outrageous success, selling nearly five million copies to date and featuring on the high-profile American TV show, Oprah.
Many of the most popular Don Miguel Ruiz quotes come straight from the book, which is described by many as a motivational classic.
Miguel Ruiz went on to publish other books including, “The Mastery of Love” and “The Voice of Knowledge, Prayers” although neither saw anything like the success of the four agreements.
Miguel Ruiz's Son, Don Jose Ruiz published a sequel called “The Fifth Agreement”. This added “Be Sceptical But Learn to Listen” to the original four. The book saw little of the same success the original enjoyed.
Read more about his books on this page.
“You don't need to change the world. You need to change yourself”
~ Don 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".”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
"Find yourself and express yourself in your own particular way. Express your love openly. Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art.”
~ Don 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.”
~ Don 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.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“The manifestation of the disease of fear is anger, hate, sadness, envy, and hypocrisy; the result of the disease is all the emotions that make humans suffer.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“We don’t see the truth because we are blind. What blinds us are all those false beliefs we have in our mind. We have the need to be right and to make others wrong. We trust what we believe, and our beliefs set us up for suffering.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“Our life is all based on a belief system that we never chose to believe. 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. Whatever”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“Humans are storytellers. It is our nature to make up stories, to interpret everything we perceive. Without awareness, we give our personal power to the story and the story writes itself. With awareness, we recover the control of our story. We see we are the authors and if we don't like our story, we change it.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
Fans and Critics
Don Miguel Ruiz is extremely well thought of in the new-age, spiritual, and motivational fields, with many Don Miguel Ruiz quotes being the focus of motivational classes all over America.
However, he is not without his critics, who seem to focus on Miguel Ruiz's beliefs rather than his works. For example, in a series of interviews for Mary Carroll Nelson's “Beyond Fear”, Miguel Ruiz revealed his belief that on January 11, 1992, the sun entered its sixth age. He also discussed his total belief in the legend of Atlantis, which led to merciless mocking from his critics who believed he had “undermined his own credibility with nonsense”. He has also been criticised widely for his belief in the spiritual powers of the pyramids.
Despite his critics, Don Miguel Ruiz is highly-respected and well liked by officials and individuals around the world.
While he has received numerous recognitions, Don Miguel Ruiz quotes being referenced as “A National Heirloom of Mexico” to be his most precious reward.
“Always do your best”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“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 tot ake the risk of expressing what you are."
~ Don 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.”
~ Don 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."
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“Maybe we cannot escape from the destiny of the human, but we have a choice: to suffer our destiny or to enjoy our destiny.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
"We have learned to live our lives trying to satisfy other people’s demands. We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
"There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“You express your own divinity by being alive and by loving yourself and others.”
~ Don 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.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
Recent Times....
Blighted by poor health, Don Miguel Ruiz quotes 2009 as being the year he aimed for changed, when he applied to be placed on the heart transplant waiting list.
In October 2010, Don Miguel Ruiz underwent a successful heart transplant operation. And so was born the man we have today, who by his own admission is “incredibly grateful” for his health and life.
Fluent in several languages, Miguel Ruiz now travels the world spreading his message of common sense and truth, in good old-fashioned Toltec style.
This much-respected shamen has dedicated his life to sharing his positive message of making personal transformation possible.
During one of Miguel Ruiz's many speeches, he said, “ Only you can change the world that you create, and by changing your world, the world will change......and that is the truth”.
This has fast become the Don Miguel Ruiz quote that defines him, a man from simple beginnings who has made significant changes to his world, and that of the world around him.
“The real mission you have in life is to make yourself happy, and in order to be happy, you have to look at what you believe, the way you judge yourself, the way you victimize yourself”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“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.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“Whatever life takes away from you, let it go”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
“I no longer agree to treat myself with disrespect. Every time a self-critical thought comes to mind, I will forgive the Judge and follow this comment with words of praise, self-acceptance, and love.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz ~
The Personal Development Guy's Self Improvement Ezine (FREE)
Would you like to keep in touch - and get high-level tips and special bonuses? Then please sign up for my self improvement newsletter The Personal Development Guy's Self Improvement Ezine. It is totally FREE.
I LOVE Your Support
If you've found the free personal development content on this website useful, please click the Donate button. Your donation will help me to keep producing free, high-level self improvement information. I am VERY GRATEFUL for your support!
Inspirational Quotes, Poems and Funny Short Stuff
If you want, you can also get your personal development, spirituality and general wisdom in an ultra light version - or even add your own wisdom to the site. Just go to the other sister of this website at:
- World's Best and YOUR Best Quotes, Poems and Short Funny Stuff
Quotescoop.com is also known as:
(http://www.inspirational-quotes-short-funny-stuff.com).
High-Level Positive Parenting Advice and Deep Insights
Positive Parenting Ally is the parenting equivalent of the Personal Development Guy. This is where you go if you want really deepen your understanding of parenting, empower your kids and make everyday life more easy and joyful.
Positive-Parenting-Ally.com
- Parenting advice for the conscious, open-minded parent!
Back to the top of this page about Quotations by Don Miguel Ruiz
Go to the main page for all the pages with great quotes or visit the page about Don Miguel Ruiz and his books.
Where Would You Like to Go Next?
To see what has been added to this site recently (plus offers, etc.), check out Blog & News at thePersonalDevelopmentGuy.comTo share your own short self improvement ideas, tips, musings, quotes, stories, spiritual jokes, etc. (and read the short ideas, etc. others have shared) jump to Shared Blog: Self Improvement Ideas
Jump to the Personal Development Guy Homepage
[?] Subscribe To This Site
