Émile Coué (1857–1926) was a French pharmacist and psychologist who made autosuggestion famous around the world. [1] His simple phrase, “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better,” is still one of the best-known affirmations ever written, and his ideas influenced many later self-help writers. [1]
Who is Émile Coué?
Émile Coué was born on 26 February 1857. His family came from Brittany and had noble roots but only modest means. [1] He was a bright pupil and first hoped to become an analytical chemist, but his father, who worked for the Eastern Railway Company, could not support those studies. Coué trained as a pharmacist instead and graduated in 1876. [1]
From 1882 to 1910 he ran a pharmacy in Troyes. He became known there for reassuring his customers and leaving a small, positive note with each item he gave them. [1] In 1886 and 1887 he studied in Nancy with Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault and Hippolyte Bernheim, two leading figures in hypnotism and suggestion. [1]
In 1910 Coué sold his business and moved to Nancy. There he worked with people in groups, free of charge, teaching them his method for the next sixteen years. [1] In 1913 he and his wife founded the Lorraine Society of Applied Psychology. [1]
His book Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion was published in England in 1920 and in the United States in 1922. [1] His ideas were more popular in Europe than in America during his lifetime, but many American writers took them up, including Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Maxwell Maltz and W. Clement Stone. [1]
Coué did not see himself as a master giving orders. He described his role as that of “a friend, a guide”, and stressed that he taught people to use a skill they already had. [2] [1] He died on 2 July 1926. [1]
His method in brief
- Imagination over willpower. Work with your imagination, not against it.
- Say the phrase. “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
- Twice a day. About twenty times on waking and at bedtime.
- Keep it easy. Swap “I can’t” for “It is easy and I can”.
At a glance
Known for: Autosuggestion and his famous daily phrase
Topics: Imagination, self-talk, confidence, daily repetition
Era: Early 1900s, France
Books: Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion
Read free: Project Gutenberg
Good fit if
You want a simple, low-effort daily habit for building a more positive inner voice, and you enjoy short classic books with practical steps.
Our take
One of the simplest self-improvement methods ever published. Try his phrase for a few weeks as a confidence and self-talk habit, and read his short book to see why he thought imagination matters more than willpower.
Émile Coué’s key ideas
These come from Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, which is free to read on Project Gutenberg. Tap a card to read more.
Will and imagination
Coué’s central idea goes against common sense. Most of us believe willpower is our strongest tool. Coué disagreed: “This will that we claim so proudly, always yields to the imagination.” [2]
From years of observation, he summed this up as a set of laws. The first was: “When the will and the imagination are antagonistic, it is always the imagination which wins.” He added that when the two agree, “one does not add to the other, but one is multiplied by the other,” and that “The imagination can be directed.” [2] He admitted the maths was only an illustration, not an exact rule. [2]
His conclusion was hopeful: “We only cease to be puppets when we have learned to guide our imagination.” [2]
The plank example
To show what he meant, Coué asked readers to picture a plank 30 feet long and 1 foot wide lying on the ground. Almost anyone can walk along it without stepping off. [2]
Now, he wrote, imagine the same plank placed at the height of a cathedral’s towers. Before you had taken two steps you would begin to tremble, and “in spite of every effort of your will” you would struggle to keep going. [2] The plank is the same. What has changed is what you imagine might happen.
He also compared the imagination to a strong river. It can sweep you away, but “if you know how, you can turn it from its course” and put its force to good use. [2]
Every day, in every way
Coué’s best-known contribution is a single sentence. In French it is “Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux”, usually translated as “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” [1] The Project Gutenberg translation of his book gives it as “Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and better.” [2]
He chose a general phrase on purpose. The words “in every respect”, he explained, apply to everything, so “There is no need to think of anything in particular.” [2]
Wikipedia notes that his approach is often reduced to just a mantra, but that it grew from decades of careful observation and adjustment. [1]
The twenty-knot routine
Coué gave clear instructions. Each morning before getting up and each night on getting into bed, you shut your eyes and repeat the phrase twenty times, counting on a string with twenty knots in it. [2] He asked people to move their lips as they said it and to count “mechanically”. [2]
Wikipedia describes the same routine: repeating the phrase as many as twenty times a day, especially at the start and end of each day. [1]
Today many people use a set of beads, a counter on their phone or simply their fingers instead of a knotted string. The idea is the same: keep it relaxed, regular and simple.
It is easy and I can
Coué paid close attention to everyday words. He urged readers to make phrases like “difficult, impossible, I cannot, it is stronger than I” disappear from their vocabulary. [2] In their place he suggested: “It is easy and I can.” [2]
His reasoning was practical. “By considering the thing easy it becomes so for you,” he wrote, “although it might seem difficult to others.” [2] He also noted, “If you persuade yourself that you can do a certain thing, provided this thing be possible, you will do it however difficult it may be.” [2]
That small condition, “provided this thing be possible”, shows that Coué saw his method as a way to unlock what you can really do.
Self-confidence
Confidence runs all through Coué’s book. He told readers that if they had lacked confidence in themselves, “this self-distrust will disappear little by little and give place to self-confidence.” [2]
He believed confidence was essential: “Without it one can accomplish nothing, with it one can accomplish whatever one likes, (within reason, of course).” [2] He also saw autosuggestion as something every one of us already has, calling it “an instrument that we possess at birth.” [2]
His closing thought sums up his outlook: used wisely, this inner force “gives us the mastery of ourselves” and helps us “to live in relative happiness, whatever the conditions in which we may find ourselves.” [2]
Videos with Émile Coué
Coué died in 1926, so these are readings, summaries and modern takes on his famous phrase, checked one by one.
Start here
Practise the phrase
Full audiobooks
Articles about Émile Coué
Émile Coué’s books
His main book is in the public domain, so you can read it free on Project Gutenberg or buy a modern edition.
Read free: Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion on Project Gutenberg. [2] [3]
Find his books in your country: US · UK · Canada · Australia · India.
Where to read and listen free
Because his main book is in the public domain, it is free to read online, and several channels have recorded full readings. [3]
Print and audio editions are easy to find in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries, often for under $10.
What the Research Shows
Coué worked a century ago, but two ideas at the heart of his method, that the words you say to yourself matter and that believing you can do something shapes how hard you try, have since been studied by researchers.
- Self-talk and performance. A meta-analysis found that deliberate self-talk improved performance on a range of tasks. [4]
- Self-belief. Believing you can succeed at something, known as self-efficacy, shapes how much effort you put in and how long you keep going. [5]
Frequently asked questions
Who was Émile Coué?
A French pharmacist and psychologist (1857–1926) who made autosuggestion popular around the world.
What is his famous phrase?
“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
How do you use the Coué method?
Repeat the phrase about twenty times on waking and at bedtime, relaxed and without strain.
Why did he use a knotted string?
To count the twenty repetitions without having to think about it.
What did he mean by imagination beating willpower?
That when the two conflict, what you imagine tends to win, so it helps to guide your imagination.
Who did he influence?
Writers including Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale and Maxwell Maltz.
Is his book free to read?
Yes. Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion is on Project Gutenberg.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Émile Coué
- Project Gutenberg: Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion by Émile Coué
- Project Gutenberg: Works by Émile Coué
- Hatzigeorgiadis et al., Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Perspectives on Psychological Science 2011
- Bandura, Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change, Psychological Review 1977
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