" To help with that, I suggested some new agreements—what I would come to call “The Four Agreements”—to alter old behavior patterns. I told them not to take things personally, and to stop making assumptions. I asked them to be impeccable with the wondrous gift of language: the words they spoke and the words that comprised their innermost thoughts. I asked them to do their best in every effort. Four simple agreements. I also reminded them again and again not to believe, but to listen. Put into practice, these new agreements would cause a disturbance that would alter their reality. "

― Miguel Ruiz , The Toltec Art of Life and Death