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

The Four Agreements are very simple, but very profound. To embrace and live each of the Four Agreements is to find yourself experiencing personal freedom--possibly as never before. The Four Agreements are:

Be Impeccable With Your Words
Don't Take Anything Personally
Don't Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

From the cover of the book:

Be Impeccable With Your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don't Take Anything Personally: Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

Don't Make Assumptions: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always Do Your Best: Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

This book may be small in size, but it packs a hefty punch in terms of shattering personal illusions and opening up a path to personal freedom. I consider this book a must-have for anyone wanting to become more conscious and wanting freedom from personal stories and agreements that cause suffering.


A beautiful guide to achieve a life of freedom and happiness   May 29, 1998
318 out of 339 found this review helpful

I have read so many books promising joy in my life, yet I have read none so simple and practical as that of the Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz. The book is a beautiful instruction guide to achieve a life of freedom and happiness. He teaches four lifestyle commitments, which can transform life into the realization of your own personal dream. Written from his heart, the Four Agreements has made profound changes in my life. What seemed insurmountable challenges became powerful lessons which I was able to embrace with faith and love. What is the dream that you hold for yourself? Allow the magic of don Miguel's wisdom to shift your life into a masterful awareness of all you want for yourself.Become the power that you want in yourlife, realize the opportunites before you and then you can live in a heaven created from the beauty of your own heart. I have given the book to many people, who, only reading it once, have initiated life changes. My personal experience with don Miguel is that no matter how little you are exposed to him, your heart will always be touched. He and his words are the touch of an angel. Treat yourself to a world without limits!


The Four Agreements Can Change Your Life   November 18, 2000
Matthew M. Yau (San Francisco, CA)
85 out of 89 found this review helpful

This book s interesting but enlightening:

1. Be impeccable with your words 2. Don't take things personally 3. Don't make assumptions 4. Always do your best

Sounds simple huh? Not so quick! Rooted in Toltec beliefs, Miguel Ruiz has done us all a great favor to explain and illustrate the above four agreements. This book serves as a practical guide to how we live daily. Language: Words, assumptions, thoughts, pre-occupation can always lead to misunderstanding and a break of relationship. Miguel Ruiz goes step-by-step, with practicals and examples, to help us achieve these four agreements. Say what you really mean to say. Don't circumvent or evade. Don't make assumptions because assumptions always lead to misunderstanding. Ruiz has so much to offer in this brillantly written book. Highly recommended.


A Guide For Looking Inside Yourself   July 24, 2000
Caroline P. Hampton (Columbus, Ohio USA)
46 out of 50 found this review helpful

"The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz is some of the best money I have ever spent. For such a small book this one could certainly change many more lives that people I'll ever meet in mine. It breaks everything all down and lets your soul be your guide. The four basic agreements are:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Words.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally.

3. Don't Make Assumptions.

4. Always Do Your Best.

You can't break it down much more than that. These basic goals and hopes are wonderfully helpful and a path to making ones life a bit easier.

While, I'm not one for a lot of self-awareness books, self-help, etc....but, I certainly found this one helpful, honest and forceful. It made me take a good look at myself and make some changes in how I plan to proceed from this day. If nothing else, give yourself a chance and read this book. It might be helpful.


learning to be a warrior   May 2, 2001
Alejandra Vernon (Long Beach, California)
31 out of 33 found this review helpful

This was a gift for which I'm so grateful, and also a gift for the entire world...wisdom profound and true, in language simple enough for anyone to be able to understand.

Don't skip the introduction (a habit I indulge in sometimes) as it's an explanation of this dream we call life. Chapter 1 will open your eyes to just how much you've been "domesticated"..."Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive and express what we really are".

Chapter 2: The power of language. "If you make an agreement with yourself to be impeccable with your word, just with that intention, the truth will manifest through you and clean out all the emotional poison that exists within you".

Chapter 3: I love this chapter ! It's about not taking anything personally. "Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves"

Chapter 4 is about not making assumptions, and the chaos we create when we make them. Chapter 5 is about just doing your best...not trying to do more, or being lazy and doing less. "If you do your best always, over and over, you will become the master of transformation".

Chapter 6: "Breaking old agreements". Breaking free of "domestication"...another great chapter, one that will challenge and change you. Chapter 7 is about achieving "Heaven on earth", and the book ends with 2 lovely prayers.

This little book of wisdom in the ancient Toltec tradition will help you find the path of the warrior, and the freedom to be "Master of your own dream".