NBNathaniel Branden

53 collected words

Nathaniel Branden

Dates not recorded

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Quotations and sayings

01Undated

I am responsible for my own existence and happiness.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

02Undated

All positive interactions with other human beings involve, to some degree, the experience of visibility-- that is, the experience of being seen and understood.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

03Undated

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

Nathaniel Branden / quote

04Undated

Self-discipline is the ability to organize your behavior over time in the service of specific goals.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

05Undated

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.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

06Undated

A mind that trusts itself is light on its feet.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

07Undated

We are parts of one universe, true enough. We stand within an almost infinite network of relationships. Yet each of us is a single point of consciousness, a unique event, a private, unrepeatable world. This is the essence of our aloneness.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

08Undated

Never marry a person who is not a friend of your excitement.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

09Undated

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 / quote

10Undated

Integrity is congruence between what you know, what you profess, and what you do.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

11Undated

It is painful to face the self we know we have never had the integrity to honor and assert.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

12Undated

Genuine self esteem – please understand this – genuine self esteem is not competitive or comparative. Genuine self esteem isn’t expressed by self-glorification at the expense of others, or by trying to make yourself superior to everyone else, or diminishing others in order to elevate yourself. Arrogance, boastfulness, the overestimation of your abilities, reflect low self esteem, even though we’re often encouraged to believe the opposite. In human beings, joy in the simple fact of existence is a core meaning of healthy self esteem. Thus understood, how can you possibly have too much of it?

Nathaniel Branden / quote

13Undated

One of the hardest expressions of self-assertiveness is challenging your limiting beliefs.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

14Undated

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-assertiveness requires courage, no matter how high your self-esteem.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

15Undated

The opposite of self-assertiveness is self-abnegation--abandoning or submerging your personal values, judgment, and interests. Some people tell themselves this is a virtue. It is a "virtue" that corrodes self-esteem.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

16Undated

Out of fear, out of the desire for approval, out of misguided notions of duty, people surrender themselves--their convictions and their aspirations--every day. There is nothing noble about it. It takes far more courage to fight for your values than to relinquish them.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

17Undated

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 / quote

18Undated

A bully hides his fears with fake bravado. That is the opposite of self-assertiveness.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

19Undated

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.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

20Undated

It is not only negative feelings that become blocked. The repression extends to more and more of his emotional capacity.When one is given an anesthetic in preparation for surgery, it is not merely the capacity to experience pain that is suspended; the capacity to experience pleasure goes also - because what is blocked is the capacity to experience *feeling*. The same principle applies to the repression of emotions."Chapter 1: Discovering the Unknown Self, pg. 9, Bantam Edition, 1984

Nathaniel Branden / quote

21Undated

One of the great self-deceptions--and one of the great foolishnesses--is to tell yourself, Only I will know. Only you will know that you are a liar; only you will know you deal unethically with people who trust you; only you will know you have no intention of honoring your promise. Whose knowledge or judgment do you imagine is more important? It is precisely your own ego from which there is no escape.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

22Undated

Most people do not erode their self-esteem over big issues but over small ones, little acts of betrayal and hypocrisy forgotten (repressed) very quickly. But the computer in your subconscious mind forgets nothing. It records your spiritual profit and loss. The balance sheet reflects your present level of self-esteem--and sends you the information via your emotions.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

23Undated

The idea of original sin--of guilt with no possibility of innocence, no freedom of choice, no alternatives--inherently militates against self-esteem. The very notion of guilt without volition or responsibility is an assault on reason as well as on morality. Sin is not original, it is originated--like virtue.

Nathaniel Branden / quote

24Undated

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

Nathaniel Branden / quote