Quotes from Nathaniel Branden

No one owes me the fulfillment of my wishes.

take responsibility for finding it. It is only by grace of the second type

Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is as important as the one we pass on ourselves.

Healthy self-esteem correlates with rationality, realism, intuitiveness, creativity, independence, flexibility, ability to manage change, willingness to admit (and correct) mistakes, benevolence, and cooperativeness. Poor self-esteem correlates with irrationality, blindness to reality, rigidity, fear of the new and unfamiliar, inappropriate conformity or inappropriate rebelliousness, defensiveness, overcompliant or overcontrolling behavior, and fear of or hostility toward others.

Poor self-esteem not only inhibits thought, it tends to distort it.

Success in life belongs to those who do.

The protection of self-esteem requires a clear understanding of the limits of personal responsibility.

People with troubled self-esteem are often uncomfortable in the presence of those with higher self-esteem and may feel resentful and declare, "They have too much self-esteem.

We hear a voice that tends to be modulated with an intensity appropriate to the situation and with clear pronunciation

Conscious individuals know that if they wish to advance in their careers they cannot rest on yesterday's knowledge and skills. An overattachment to the known and familiar has become costly and dangerous; it threatens both organizations and individuals with obsolescence. Scientific

It is said that the successful organization of the future will be above all a learning organization. It can equally be said that it will be an organization geared to self-esteem.

when a self-doubting, insecure person blindly persists in counterproductive behavior, clings to the illusory safety of compulsive inflexibility, and blames all misfortune on someone else.

We are not moved to change those things whose reality we deny.

The art of being is the art of knowing ourselves, of accepting and existing in harmony with ourselves, and of living out, in action, the highest possibilities of our nature. It includes three basic concepts: self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-assertion.

I choose to value myself, to treat myself with respect, to stand up for my right to exist.

Productiveness is the act of supporting our existence by translating our thought into reality, of setting our goals and working for their achievement, of bringing knowledge, goods, or services into existence.

Certain religious teachings implicitly or explicitly damn sex, damn pleasure, damn the body, damn ambition, damn material success, damn (for all practical purposes) the enjoyment of life on Earth. If children are indoctrinated with these teachings, what will the practice of integrity mean in their lives? Some enemy's my elements of hypocrisy may be all that keeps them alive

The child may practice self-repudiation as a survival strategy. He or she cannot be expected to understand the unfortunate long-range consequences

When we are moved primarily by fear, sooner or later we precipitate the very calamity we dread. If we fear condemnation, we behave in ways that ultimately elicit disapproval. If we fear anger, eventually we make people angry.

Fear and pain should be treated as signals not to close our eyes but to open them wider, not to look away but to look more attentively.

Praise in public and correct in private:

when we look for solutions, we grow in self-esteem; when we blame (or alibi), we weaken self-esteem.

The alternative is not to hold everything we think in doubt but rather to maintain an openness to new experience and knowledge—

Instinct" is a concept intended to bridge the gap between needs and goals, bypassing man's cognitive (i.e., reasoning and learning) faculty.