Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden Quotes
68 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
Productive achievement is a consequence and an expression of health and self-esteem, not its cause.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
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.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Living consciously reflects the conviction that sight is preferable to blindness; that respecting the facts of reality is more satisfying than denying them; that evasion does not make the unreal real or the real unreal; that it is better to correct your mistakes that to pretend they do not exist; and that the more conscious you are of facts bearing on your life and goals, the more wisely and effectively you can act.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
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.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
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.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Integrity is congruence between what you know, what you profess, and what you do.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Rand always says, Never pass up an opportunity to pass moral judgment. Well I say: Look for an opportunity to do something more useful instead. Nobody was led to virtue by being told he was a scoundrel.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Some people have a view of self and of the universe that obliges them to struggle for happiness, to yearn for happiness-"some time in the future"-perhaps next year or the year after that. But not now. Not at this moment. Not here. Here and now is too terrifyingly close, too terrifyingly immediate. They suffer from happiness anxiety.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
The desire for self-esteem without integrity is like the desire for wealth without effort-a longing for the unearned.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
You have a right to your feelings. Your feelings are there to tell you something, but they are not infallible guides to behavior.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
It is naive to think that self-assertiveness is easy. To live self-assertively—which means to live authentically—is an act of high courage. That is why so many people spend the better part of their lives in hiding—from others and also from themselves.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
One of the mistakes that Rand makes is that after she condemns a belief or an action, she goes on to tell you the psychology of the person who did it, as if she knows. I focus my judgment on the action and not on the person. My primary interest is: do I admire or dislike this behavior? And there, judgment is important for me. People often attribute all kinds of things to another person, without ever knowing where that person's coming from. Most of the time, I regard the judgment of people as a waste of time. I regard the judgment of behavior as imperative.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
The highest compliment one can be paid by another human being is to be told: 'Because of what you are, you are essential to my happiness.'
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
When you are frightened, you typically pull energy in to your center, seeing less, hearing less-shrinking consciousness precisely when you need to expand it.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Positive self-esteem operates as, in effect, the immune system of the consciousness, providing resistance, strength, and a capacity for regeneration. When self-esteem is low, our resilience in the face of life's adversities is diminished. We crumble before vicissitudes that a healthier sense of self could vanquish. We tend to be more influenced by the desire to avoid pain than to experience joy. Negatives have more power over us than positives.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Your life is important. Whether you achieve what you want in life matters. Whether you are happy matters. Honor and fight for your highest potential. Self-realizatio n-the realization of the best within you-is the noblest goal of your existence.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
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.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
Taking on responsibilities that properly belong to someone else means behaving irresponsibly toward yourself. You need to know where you end and someone else begins. You need to understand boundaries. You need to know what is and is not up to you, what is and is not in your control, what is and is not your responsibility.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
It is true that people are sometimes hit by adversities beyond their control. But those so affected are better helped when they are awakened to the resources they do possess than when they are told they don't have any.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
The tragedy of too many people is that they cannot allow happiness just to be there; they cannot leave it alone. Their sense of who they are and of what their destiny is cannot accommodate happiness. So they are drive to find ways to sabotage it.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
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.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
If you face life without confidence in your own powers, you succumb too easily to setbacks and adversity; you lack the will to persevere.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
What is guilt? It is moral self-reproach-I did wrong when it was possible to have done otherwise.
Nathaniel Branden
Source
Report...
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.
Nathaniel Branden
1
2
3
Quote of the day
How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children.
Charles Darwin
Nathaniel Branden
Born:
April 9, 1930
Died:
December 3, 2014
(aged 84)
Bio:
Nathaniel Branden was a Canadian American psychotherapist and writer known for his work in the psychology of self-esteem.
Known for:
The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem (1994)
The Psychology of Self-Esteem (1969)
Honoring the Self (1983)
How to Raise Your Self-Esteem (1987)
The art of living consciously (1997)
Most used words:
self
,
esteem
,
love
,
desire
,
judgment
,
person
,
reality
,
people
,
achievement
,
man
,
pass
,
live
,
accept
,
feelings
,
choose
Nathaniel Branden on Wikipedia
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Nathaniel Branden Quotes
Nathaniel Branden Short Quotes
American Psychologist Quotes
Psychologist Quotes
20th-century Psychologist Quotes
Related People
Ayn Rand
Russian Philosopher
Leonard Peikoff
Canadian Philosopher
Warren Bennis
American Economist
Stefan Molyneux
Canadian Broadcaster
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes