Nathaniel Branden Quotes
Loving consciously does not mean subjecting your relationship to endless analysis. It means something much simpler: paying attention. Noticing. This requires presence.
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.
Fully to surrender to love can be terrifying. But it is the price life asks in exchange for the possibility of ecstasy.
It is painful to face the self we know we have never had the integrity to honor and assert.
What is guilt? It is moral self-reproach-I did wrong when it was possible to have done otherwise.
Where we see self esteem, we see self acceptance. High self esteem individual tend to avoid falling into an adversarial relationship with themselves.
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
Reason and emotion are not antagonists. What seems like a struggle between two opposing ideas or values, one of which, automatic and unconscious, manifests itself in the form of a feeling.
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.
The policy of seeking values from human beings by means of force, when practiced by an individual, is called crime. When practiced by a government, it is called statism.
Most of the time, I regard the judgment of people as a waste of time. I regard the judgment of behavior as imperative.
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.
Suffering is just about the easiest of all human activities; being happy is just about the hardest. And happiness requires, not surrender to guilt, but emancipation from guilt.
To exist without purpose is to be at the mercy of the chance encounter, the chance invitation, the chance phone call, the chance event- always being controlled by forces external to oneself.
It's not that achievements prove our worth but rather that the process of achieving is the means by which we develop our effectiveness, our competence at living.
To trust one's mind and to know that one is worthy of happiness is the essence of self-esteem.
If we do not believe in ourselves- neither in our efficacy nor in our goodness- the universe is a frightening place.
Set goals that don't feel all that easy, that challenge you, stimulate you, and give you a chance to stretch and push yourself. That is where the power of growth lies.
Capitalism, by its nature, entails a constant process of motion, growth and progress.
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.
Self-respecting men and women think about the consequences of their actions-and are willing to take responsibility for them.
It would be hard to name a more certain sign of poor self-esteem than the need to perceive some other group as inferior.
The first love affair you must consummate is the love affair with yourself. Only then are you ready for a romantic relationship.
Self-esteem is a powerful force within each of us... Self-esteem is the experience that we are appropriate to life and to the requirements of life.
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.
A woman in love will do almost anything for a man, except give up the desire to improve him.
The lies most devastating to our self-esteem are not so much the lies we tell as the lies we live.
Sometimes the subconscious mind manifests a wisdom several steps or even years ahead of the conscious mind, and has its own way of leading us toward our destiny.
Moved by a passion they do not understand for a goal they seldom reach, men and women are haunted by the vision of a distant possibility that refuses to be extinguished.
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.
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.
High self esteem people can surely be knocked down by an excess of troubles, but they are quickerto pick themselves up again.
The desire for self-esteem without integrity is like the desire for wealth without effort-a longing for the unearned.
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.
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?
All positive interactions with other human beings involve, to some degree, the experience of visibility-- that is, the experience of being seen and understood.
Self-discipline is the ability to organize your behavior over time in the service of specific goals.
The challenge for people today--and it is not and easy one--is to maintain high personal standards even while feeling that one is living in a moral sewer.
Never marry a person who is not a friend of your excitement.
