Eric Berne Quotes

• The destiny of every human being is decided by what goes on inside his skull when confronted by what goes on outside his skull.

  Eric Berne

  Destiny, Skulls, Goes On

  85 Copy quote

• Awareness requires living in the here and now, and not in the elsewhere, the past or the future.

  Eric Berne

  Past, Awareness, Here And Now

  Eric Berne (2011). “Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis”, p.156, Tantor eBooks

  102 Copy quote

• Each person designs his own life, freedom gives him the power to carry out his own designs, and power gives the freedom to interfere with the designs of others.

  Eric Berne

  Giving, Design, Persons

  Eric Berne (2010). “What Do You Say After You Say Hello”, p.51, Random House

  65 Copy quote

• Each person decides in early childhood how he will live and how he will die... His trivial behavior may be decided by reason, but his important decisions have already been made: what kind of person he will marry, how many children he will have, what kind of bed he will die in... It is incredible to think, at first, that man's fate, all his nobility and all his degradation, is decided by a child no more than six years old, and usually three... (but) it is very easy to believe by looking at what is happening in the world today, and what happened yesterday, and seeing what will happen tomorrow.

  Eric Berne

  Children, Believe, Fate

  97 Copy quote

• A healthy person goes 'Yes,' 'No,' and 'Whoopee!' An unhealthy person goes 'Yes, but,' 'No, but,' and 'No whoopee.

  Eric Berne

  Health, Persons, Healthy

  "They Shoot Managers, Don't They?: Managing Yourself and Leading Others in a Changing World". Book by Terry L. Paulson, p. 3, 1991.

  66 Copy quote

• Love is nature's psychotherapy.

  Eric Berne

  Love, Love Is, Psychotherapy

  80 Copy quote

• The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.

  Eric Berne

  Nature, Boys, Equality

  ERIC BERNE, M.D. (1964). “GAMES PEOPLE PLAY”

  90 Copy quote

• Awareness means the capacity to see a coffeepot and hear the birds sing in one's own way and not the way one was taught.

  Eric Berne

  Mean, Bird, Way

  Joan Halifax, Eric Berne (1967). “The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom”, Grove Pr

  61 Copy quote

• We are born princes and the civilizing process makes us frogs.

  Eric Berne

  Sad, Knowing Who You Are, Civilization

  46 Copy quote

• A loser doesn't know what he'll do if he loses, but talks about what he'll do if he wins, and a winner doesn't talk about what he'll do if he wins, but knows what he'll do if he loses.

  Eric Berne

  Inspirational, Failure, Winning

  Eric Berne (2010). “What Do You Say After You Say Hello”, p.235, Random House

  65 Copy quote

• Games are a compromise between intimacy and keeping intimacy away.

  Eric Berne

  Gambling, Games, Compromise

  47 Copy quote

• It is better to be a slave to your beloved woman than a free man to the unloved one.

  Eric Berne

  Men, Beloved, Slave

  59 Copy quote

• The eternal problem of the human being is how to structure his waking hours

  Eric Berne

  Waking, Problem, Hours

  Eric Berne (1977). “Games people play: the psychology of human relationships”

  50 Copy quote

• A winner fulfills his contract with the world and with himself. That is, he sets out to do something, says that he is committed to doing it, and in the long run does it.

  Eric Berne

  Running, Long, Doe

  Eric Berne (2010). “What Do You Say After You Say Hello”, p.234, Random House

  51 Copy quote

• Some say that one-sided love is better than none, but like half a loaf of bread, it is likely to grow hard and moldy sooner.

  Eric Berne

  Love Is, Half, Bread

  Eric Berne (2011). “Sex in Human Loving”, Tantor eBooks

  53 Copy quote

• No man is a hero to his wife's psychiatrist.

  Eric Berne

  Hero, Men, Wife

  Eric Berne (2011). “Sex in Human Loving”, Tantor eBooks

  35 Copy quote

• Whatever you do, think of next morning's headlines.

  Eric Berne

  Life, Morning, Thinking

  27 Copy quote

• Losers spend time explaining why they lost. Losers spend their lives thinking about what they're going to do. They rarely enjoy doing what they're doing.

  Eric Berne

  Thinking, Loser, Lost

  25 Copy quote

• Every man must, in a measure, be alone in the world. No heart was ever cast in the same mould as that which we bear within us.

  Eric Berne

  Heart, Men, Bears

  36 Copy quote

• Human life [is] ... a process of filling in time until the arrival of death, or Santa Claus, with very little choice, if any, of what kind of business one is going to transact during the long wait.

  Eric Berne

  Life, Long, Waiting

  'Games People Play' (1964) ch. 18

  27 Copy quote

• Such a woman is called "Mother's FRIEND" always ready to give judicious Parental advice and living vicariously on the experience of others

  Eric Berne

  Mother, Giving, Advice

  Eric Berne (2011). “Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis”, p.78, Tantor eBooks

  27 Copy quote

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