How To Stop Whiners

Both SidesScriptsCure Table VersionUnderstanding WhinnersRelated QuotationsRelated Pages6 Groups of Topics9 Skills & Topics

How to Stop Whiners: Ask to Hear Both Sides


How to stop whiners while avoiding conflict. Do you want to graciously stop whiners from wasting your time and energy? Gain more peace.


“The great rivers flow quietly; a wise man doesn’t raise his voice.” —Chinese proverb


How to Stop Whiners

  • Don’t you hate it when they whine, complain, moan, & groan?
  • Do you hate it when they whine and say the following?
  1. “Don’t you agree?”
  2. “Do you see my point?”
  3. “Ain’t it awful?”
  4. “Aren’t they just terrible for doing that?”
  5. “Isn’t that just too stupid?”

  • Don’t you want to graciously stop them from wasting your time and using you to confirm their distorted views?

  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

How to Stop Whiners: Book cover for Games Ego Plays

How to Stop Whiners: Memorize 3 Parts of this Script:

  1. “Thanks for the honor of being a judge.
  2. But, to be a fair judge—
  3. First, I will have to hear the other side.”

How to Stop Whiners: Stay Committed

  • Stick to this line each time they whine.
  • They will soon stop bothering you and move on to annoying and distressing others.

How to Stop Whiners: How It Works

  • “Thanks for the honor of being a judge. But, to be a fair judge, I must hear the other side.”
  • Of course, they don’t want you to consider the other side, so the conversation ends quickly.
  • In the meantime, you planted the seed that they are playing judge, jury, and executioner if they ever wake up.

3 Alternative Lines to Memorize

  • Here are three alternative lines with the same intention and meaning.
  • Feel free to make your own variation.
  1. “Thanks for making me a judge. I will give you my opinion as soon as I have heard the other side.”
  2. “Thanks for making me a judge. I will do my best to hear the other side and get back to you with my opinion.”
  3. “I don’t have enough information to judge the matter, nor do I want to judge it; therefore, let’s talk about something happier.”

How to Stop Whiners: Personal Favorites

  • Find one line or makeup one that suits your personality and style, and stick to it.

How to Stop Whiners: Examples

“I don’t have enough information to judge your situation, nor do I want to judge it—can we please change the subject?”

“The simple truth is I don’t want to judge or damn another because it’s bad for my soul.”

“Sounds like you could use comfort and soothing to boost your acceptance and coping.”

“Perhaps you should focus on taking care of yourself by eating, exercising, and sleeping right.”


  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

Book cover for Games Ego Plays

How to Stop Whiners: The Cure

  • A condensed version of stopping the whiners.

The Whiner Cure Formulae


  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

Book cover for Games Ego Plays

How to Stop Whiners: Understanding People

  • People are not as hard to figure out as you might suspect.
  • The following generalizations are general and not specific; therefore, they inherently recognize that they do not cover all situations or specifics.

How to Stop Whiners: People Who Whine

  1. People who whine about injustice are unjust.
  2. People who whine about unfairness are unfair.
  3. People who do not show trust are untrustworthy.
  4. People who continually doubt are to be doubted.
  5. People who whine about the lack of peace are warlike.
  6. People who constantly worry are a worry to everyone else.
  7. People who constantly whine are a whine for everyone else.
  8. People who whine about being abused are abusers of themselves and others.
  9. People whine about abuse to get you to abuse those they whine about.
  10. People post slogans and join causes against what they do the most.

How to Stop Whiners: General Hypocrisy

  • People who continually whine about a value or moral not being followed—do not follow that moral or value themselves.
  • People who whine about something use their whining as an excuse not to have to follow the very thing that they are complaining about others do not follow.

How to Stop Whiners: Whine About Whining

  • Does this whining about whining mean that I am a whiner?
  • Yes, it does.
  • Now, I can choose to whine constructively, to whine less, and to be a responsible whiner.

How to Stop Whiners: Whining Can Work

  • Yes, you can whine constructively when you do so to get help to fix a problem, such as a leaking roof, the local river being poisoned, or to get help with a fire.

How to Stop Whiners: Rules for When to Whine

  1. Whine to get help, not to annoy.
  2. Whine to fix, not to distress.
  3. Whine to problem-solve, not to cope.
  4. Whine to inform, not to release.
  5. Whine to prevent problems, not to seek justification.

How to Stop Whiners: Factoids

Problem Game

  • Whining increases problems by focusing you on problems instead of on solutions.

Pride Game

  • The whiner believes that they know better than what they are whining about makes them better: ego feeding (superiority).

Power Game

  • The whiner seeks to see pain because they imagine pain as their way to power (victimology).
  • More on Victimhood

  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

Book cover for Games Ego Plays

How to Stop Whiners: Quotations Various Sources

Listed Alphabetically

“Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.” —Orson Card

“Be the change you seek.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” —Dr. Seuss

“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact.” —George Eliot

“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;” —I Peter 1:15

“Difficulties are things that show what men are.” —Epictetus

“Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence.” —Spanish proverb

“Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.” —Psalms 28:3

“Foolishness always results when the tongue outraces the brain.” —Unknown

“He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.” —Proverbs 11:12

“It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and resolve all doubt.” —Abraham Lincoln

“Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness.” —Margaret Millar

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” —Anonymous

“Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” —Proverbs 16:24

“Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.” —Josh Billings

“So I’d better stop my whining and help myself cope better with even the worst Adversities.” –Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 251

“Some man holdeth his tongue, because he hath not to answer: and some keepeth silence, knowing his time.” —Ecclesiasticus 20:6

“The first duty of love is to listen.” —Paul Tillich, 1886-1965

“The most precious things in speech are pauses.” —Ralph Richardson

“There are very few people who don’t become more interesting when they stop talking.” —Mary Lowry

“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Two monologues do not make a dialogue.” —Jeff Daly

“We can actually put the essence of neurosis in a single word: blaming–or damning.” —Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 127

“What poison is to food, self-pity is to life.” —Oliver C. Wilson

“Whining about your own, others’, or the world’s failings is a main element in what we usually call neurosis.” —Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 215

“Why make the game of life more difficult by fretting and whining about its unfairness. Do–don’t stew!” —Albert Ellis and Robert A. Harper, A Guide to Rational Living, Third Edition, p. 165

“You can overcome anything if you don’t bellyache.” —Bernard Baruch


  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

Book cover for Games Ego Plays

How to Stop Whiners: Free Help with Communication

  1. Communication Skills: Free Help
  2. Difficult people: Difficult People: How to Handle
  3. Double-binds: Double-Binds: How to Respond to Them
  4. Reminder card to print: 2 Healthy Options: Problem-solving & Coping
  5. Styles of communicating: 25 Relational Styles.
  6. The 5 sides to every story: 5 Thinking Positions
  7. Whining: Damning, Whining, & Blaming

  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

Book cover for Games Ego Plays


  • Read and master the life skill of acceptance using the best combination of CBT, REBT, & Stoicism.

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How to Stop Whiners: 6 Groups of Topics Menu


  • Read and master the life skill of acceptance using the best combination of CBT, REBT, & Stoicism.

How To Stop Whiners


  • Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for your feelings and stress.

How To Stop Whiners


  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

How To Stop Whiners

How to Stop Whiners: 9 Skills & Topics Menu


  • Read and master the life skill of acceptance using the best combination of CBT, REBT, & Stoicism.

How To Stop Whiners


  • Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for your feelings and stress.

How To Stop Whiners


  • Read to discover the best maps and diagrams of how communication works.

How To Stop Whiners