Don Miguel Ruiz Quotes

… people can't imagine someone else's point of view.

I often make the mistake of thinking that something that is obvious to me is obvious to everyone else.

To judge someone before understanding that person is a form of human rejection and feeds upon itself. It intensifies personal insecurities, necessitating more judgment (prejudice) and less understanding. The processes continue in this vicious cycle.

It is a funny thing how hard it is to see the other fellow's point of view.

Never assume you know where someone else is coming from.

We can never truly understand the people we hate; we can never truly hate the people we understand.

In theory we understand people, but in practice we can't put up with them, I thought, deal with them for the most part reluctantly and always treat them from our point of view. We should observe and treat people not from our point of view but from all angles, I thought, associate with them in such a way that we can say we associate with them so to speak in a completely unbiased way, which however isn't possible, since we actually are always biased against everybody.

I think it just came with me evolving as a person and me understanding that it's not right to judge or to say anything derogatory about other people, especially if I don't know them.

It's presumptuous to say you know how somebody feels.

People aren't born racist.

Being unbiased is a lot like being humble: as soon as you think you are, you aren’t. Neither are a finite state of being but a continuous struggle to not allow our perspectives poison our opinions.

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.

We should start off with the premise that people that we're disagreeing with are like ourselves. Try and work out why they think what they think.

It's always easier to dismiss other people than to go through the awkward and time consuming process of understanding them.

People are starting to understand the other side's perspective and that's where empathy can sort of begin - once you quit judging other people but just understand where they're coming from.

You can't tell what a man is like or what he is thinking when you are looking at him. You must get around behind him and see what he has been looking at.

Do not be the judge of people; do not make assumptions about others. A person is destroyed by holding judgments about others.

Understanding a person does not mean condoning; it only means that one does not accuse him as if one were God or a judge placed above him.

To judge individuals before understanding them is a form of human rejection and feeds upon itself.

If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate.

You're wrong means that I don't understand you, I'm not seeing what you're seeing- and I'm not seeing all of you there is to see. But there is nothing wrong with you. You are what you need to be, doing what you need to be doing, and although I may take steps to protect myself of others, I do not know all and therefore am literally inadequate to judge.

You have to see through one's faults before you see their need.

Empathy is the main thing, putting yourself in somebody else's shoes and trying not to judge.

What we do not understand we have no right to judge

if you learn to hate one or two persons... you'll soon hate millions of people.