Yes to "the five agreements". I loved it, and it was truly inspiring. Here's a link to the summary of the four agreements in our magazine - the predecessor of this book.
I just finished "Radicalized" by Cory Doctorow - Four highly relevant, fascinating and entertaining stories where he walks just Read more… a few steps further down a few roads we are already on.
"Sapiens" and "Home Deus" by Noah Yuval Harari are probably classics by now.
A completely different style to Doctorow but at the same time another useful collection of insights that support my efforts to understand what is going on right now, where we come from, and where we are heading and how I can play a positive part in all of that.

I can very much relate to that, and I struggle with this as well. Though not as much as I used to.
Something that helped me is to be able to respond rather than react. I got better at that due to meditation. Of cause, it doesn't always work, and then I play nice and inside I am boiling, or I keep Read more… ruminating for days if not weeks, but all in all I feel like I am more myself.
In my opinion, one of the keywords here is boundaries. And to set healthy boundaries, I need to get to know myself better. What is important to me, what isn't and where and how can I compromise.
Brene Brown is excellent in talking about being brave and vulnerable at the same time because strangely enough, these two go together. This question at first isn't about vulnerability but bravery. In my experience, though it is scary and vulnerable to be brave enough to speak up, go against the expectations, risk not to be liked, expose your feeling and all of that.
Maybe you find as much wisdom and comfort in her talks and books as I did:
She also has a talk on Netflix now: "The call to courage". Highly recommended. I laughed, cried and learned. :-)

To me, travelling with others taught me more about myself than about them. I learned about my preferences, boundaries and expectations and most importantly, how to articulate them.
I would rather spend several hours at a train station in India and then ride in a crazy overcrowded cheap train than Read more… arriving quickly and in comfort though I had moments when I had enough of the local experience. 😄 I don't care much about sights, but I love sitting in cafes for hours drinking tea and trying yet another local dish while watching the people around me.
Some of my dearest friends would not enjoy any of this, and still, we are best friends.
At the same time, I somehow agree with the quote - not because of realising that our travelling preferences were different, but during the trip, it would become clear that we had very different values, levels of respect and compassion.

In the little village where I live, I make an effort to greet everyone with a smile or to stop for a chat when walking my dog each day. It's fun, and I get to practice some Spanish on top of that. By now I made friends enough that my 84-year-old neighbour would come by and ask me to get her a new Read more… waterpot when I drive to town, or she would give me fresh plums from the garden which I would partially return to her the next day in the form of a cake.
I have also learned that people's bodies get old, but many of the older people I chat with a really cheeky and won't let an opportunity to pull my leg pass unused. 😄
Related to that: Loneliness amongst older people was something I was aware of. A survey by BBC Radio 4 revealed that the age group most affected by loneliness are young people between 16 and 24!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/loneliest-age-group-radio-4