Best 168 quotes of Nathaniel Branden on MyQuotes

Nathaniel Branden

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Accepting does not necessarily mean liking, enjoying, condoning. I can accept what is-and be determined to evolve from there. It is not acceptance but denial that leaves me stuck.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    A commitment to lifelong learning is a natural expression of the practice of living consciously.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    A goal without an action plan is a daydream.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    An emotion is both a mental and a physical event.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Anyone who engages in the practice of psychotherapy confronts every day the devastation wrought by the teachings of religion.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Anyone who really loves you wants you to be authentic. And anyone who doesn't want you to be authentic doesn't really love you.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    A productive purpose to which you give yourself fully and joyfully is one of the great adventures of life. It is a uniquely human source of happiness.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    As you grow in self-esteem, your face, manner, way of talking and moving will tend naturally to project the pleasure you take in being alive.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    A well-developed sense of self is a necessary if not sufficient condition of your well-being. Its presence does not guarantee fulfillment, but its absence guarantees some measure of anxiety, frustration, or despair.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Be careful what you say to your children. They may agree with you.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Capitalism, by its nature, entails a constant process of motion, growth and progress.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Do not marry the enemy of your excitement.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Even when our life is most difficult, it is important to remember that something within us is keeping us alive- the life force-that lift us, energizes us, pulls us back sometimes from the abyss of despair. True spirituality does not exist without love of life.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: "What's good in my life?" and "What needs to be done?

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Faith is the commitment of one's consciousness to beliefs for which one has no sensory evidence or rational proof. When man rejects reason as his standard of judgement, only one alternative standard remains to him: his feelings. A mystic is a man who treats his feelings as tools of cognition. Faith is the equation of feelings with knowledge

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Fear and pain should be treated as signals not to close our eyes but to open them wider.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Force, governmental coercion, is the instrument by which the ethics of altruism - the belief that the individual exists to serve others - is translated into political reality.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    For children mastery entails struggle. This means they must be permitted to struggle. If parents inappropriately step in to "help"-out of impatience or solicitude-they sabotage important learning. Among other things, the child is unlikely to discover the advantages of perseverance and self-discipline.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    For "I" to become "we" and yet remain "I," is one of the great challenges of marriage.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    For the rational, psychologically healthy man, the desire for pleasure is the desire to celebrate his control over reality. For the neurotic, the desire for pleasure is the desire to escape from reality.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Freedom is still the most radical idea of all.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Fully to surrender to love can be terrifying. But it is the price life asks in exchange for the possibility of ecstasy.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    High self esteem people can surely be knocked down by an excess of troubles, but they are quickerto pick themselves up again.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    How do we keep our inner fire alive? Two things, at minimum, are needed: an ability to appreciate the positives in our life – and a commitment to action. Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: ‘What's good in my life?’ and ‘What needs to be done?

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    Nathaniel Branden

    How do we nurture the soul? By revering our own life. By learning to love it all, not only the joys and the victories, but also the pain and the struggles.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    I believe that earning your living doing something you enjoy is one of the very best ways to nourish yourself. But even if you are employed at something that is not your ideal work, it is important to find ways to take as much pleasure in it as possible. Living in the present moment can make ordinary activities more interesting and joyful; you may be surprised, if you only look, at what you will find. If you try to stay connected with why you are doing what you are doing, for example, then even the parts of your life that aren't especially interesting can become more meaningful.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If my aim is to prove I am 'enough,' the project goes on to infinity-because the battle was already lost on the day I conceded the issue was debatable.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If we attach more importance to what other people believe than to what we know to be true - if we value belonging over being - we will not attain authenticity.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If we do have realistic confidence in our mind and value, if we feel secure within ourselves, we tend to experience the world as open to us and to respond appropriately to challenges and opportunities.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If we do not believe in ourselves- neither in our efficacy nor in our goodness- the universe is a frightening place.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you are an adult, you are responsible for your life and well-being. No one owes you the fulfillment of your needs or wants; no one is here on earth to serve you. If you respect the principle of self-ownership, you understand that no one else owns you and that you do not own anyone else. Only on this understanding can there be peace on earth and good will among human beings.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you are terrified of making mistakes, you will be reluctant to acknowledge them when you do make them-and therefore you will not correct them.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you bring five percent more awareness to your work tomorrow, or to your most important relationship, what might you do differently? Are you willing to find out?

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you choose not to live self-responsibly, you count on others to make up your default. No one abjures self-responsibility on a desert island.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you do not feel deserving of happiness, consciously or subconsciously, or if you have accepted the idea that happiness is somehow wrong or cannot last, you will not respond appropriately when happiness comes knocking at your door in the form of romantic love. No matter how much you may have waited and cried, you will not welcome love when it arrives-you will find a way to sabotage it. What a challenge to resist this temptation! What an opportunity for true spiritual growth and transformation-to defy your negative feelings and honor the gift that life offers you!

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you face life without confidence in your own powers, you succumb too easily to setbacks and adversity; you lack the will to persevere.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you have high self-esteem, you might still know times of emotional suffering, but less often and with faster recovery-your resilience is greater.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    If you overcome your fear to ask someone for a date, a raise, or help with a project, that is an act of self-assertiveness. You are moving out into life rather than contracting and withdrawing.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    I have to respect other's opinions even if I don't agree with them.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    In any culture, subculture, or family in which belief is valued above thought, and self-surrender is valued above self-expression, and conformity is valued above integrity, those who preserve their self-esteem are likely to be heroic exceptions.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    In a world in which the total of human knowledge is doubling about every ten years, our security can rest only on our ability to learn

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    Nathaniel Branden

    In a world in which we are exposed to more information, more options, more philosophies, more perspectives than ever before, in which we must choose the values by which we will live (rather than unquestioningly follow some tradition for no better reason than that our own parents did), we need to be willing to stand on our own judgment and trust our own intelligence-to look at the world through our own eyes-to chart our course and think through how to achieve the future we want, to commit ourselves to continuous questioning and learning-to be, in a word, self-responsible.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Individualism is at once an ethical-psychological concept and an ethical-political one. As an ethical-psychological concept, individualism holds that a human being should think and judge independently, respecting nothing more than the sovereignty of his or her mind; thus, it is intimately connected with the concept of autonomy. As an ethical-political concept, individualism upholds the supremacy of individual rights

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness. They are more willing to follow their own vision, even when it takes them far from the mainland of the human community. Unexplored places do not frighten them- or not, at any rate, as much as they frighten those around them. This is one of the secrets of their power. That which we call genius has a great deal to do with courage and daring, a great deal to do with nerve.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Integrity is the integration of ideals, convictions, standards, beliefs-and behavior. When our behavior is congruent with our professed values, when ideals and practice match up, we have integrity.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    Integrity means congruence. Words and behavior match.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    In the nature of our existence, we must act to achieve values. And in order to act appropriately, we need to value the beneficiary of our actions. In order to seek values, we must consider ourselves worthy of enjoying them. In order to fight for our happiness, we must consider ourselves worthy of happiness.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    In the whole history of capitalism, no one has been able to establish a coercive monopoly by means of competition in a free market...Every single coercive monopoly that exists or ever has existed...was created and made possible only by an act of government...which granted special privileges (not obtainable in a free market) to a man or a group of men, and forbade all others to enter that particular field.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    It is a curious paradox of human history that a doctrine that tells human beings to regard themselves as sacrificial animals has been accepted as a doctrine representing benevolence and love for mankind.

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    Nathaniel Branden

    It is a mistake to look at someone who is self assertive and say, "It's easy for her, she has good self-esteem." One of the ways you build self-esteem is by being self-assertive when it is not easy to do so. There are always times when self-assertiven ess requires courage, no matter how high your self-esteem.