Nathaniel Branden

Respect starts with ourselves.

— Nathaniel Branden

Integrity means congruence. Words and behavior match.

— Nathaniel Branden

The world belongs to those who persevere.

— Nathaniel Branden

Do not marry the enemy of your excitement.

— Nathaniel Branden

“We must become what we wish to teach.”

— Nathaniel Branden

Freedom is still the most radical idea of all.

— Nathaniel Branden

Doing more of what doesn't work doesn't work.

— Nathaniel Branden

An emotion is both a mental and a physical event.

— Nathaniel Branden

Self-esteem is not a luxury; it is a profound spiritual need.

— Nathaniel Branden

To trust one's mind and to know that one is worthy of happiness is the essence of self-esteem.

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

A woman in love will do almost anything for a man, except give up the desire to improve him.

— Nathaniel Branden

“I cannot organize my behaviour optimally if my goal is merely "to do my best." The assignment is too vague.”

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.

— Nathaniel Branden

What is guilt? It is moral self-reproach-I did wrong when it was possible to have done otherwise.

— Nathaniel Branden

You have a right to your feelings. Your feelings are there to tell you something, but they are not infallible guides to…

— Nathaniel Branden

If we do have realistic confidence in our mind and value, if we feel secure within ourselves, we tend to experience the…

— Nathaniel Branden

Moved by a passion they do not understand for a goal they seldom reach, men and women are haunted by the vision…

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— 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…

— Nathaniel Branden

There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect,…

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

“Instead of seeking self-esteem through consciousness, responsibility, and integrity, we may seek it through popularity, material acquisitions, or sexual exploits.”

— Nathaniel Branden

The feeling that "I am enough" does not mean that I have nothing to learn, nothing further to achieve, and nowhere to…

— Nathaniel Branden

“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…

— Nathaniel Branden

Living consciously is seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our interests, actions, values, purposes, and goals. It is the…

— Nathaniel Branden

Romantic love can be terrifying. We experience another human being as enormously important to us. So there is surrender -not a surrender…

— Nathaniel Branden

Of all the nonsense written about love, none is more absurd than the notion that ideal love is selfless. To love is…

— 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…

— Nathaniel Branden

... there is an irrational, cultish tendency in many intellectual movements, and Objectivism, alas, is no exception. Ayn Rand's personal obsession with…

— Nathaniel Branden

Some people have a view of self and of the universe that obliges them to struggle for happiness, to yearn for happiness-"some…

— Nathaniel Branden

Stressing the practice of living purposefully as essential to fully realized self-esteem is not equivalent to measuring an individual's worth by his…

— Nathaniel Branden

The more you surrender to the fear of someone's disapproval, the more you lose face in your own eyes, and the more…

— Nathaniel Branden

If you do not feel deserving of happiness, consciously or subconsciously, or if you have accepted the idea that happiness is somehow…

— Nathaniel Branden

“A person who is brilliantly talented and successful at work but irrational and irresponsible in his or her private life may want…

— Nathaniel Branden

Whether your focus is on preserving and strengthening family ties in a world of increasingly unstable relationships, gaining access to a decent…

— Nathaniel Branden

“I think that we approach the problem of romantic love all wrong when we start with the questions: why do so many…

— Nathaniel Branden

I believe that earning your living doing something you enjoy is one of the very best ways to nourish yourself. But even…

— Nathaniel Branden

“If I respect myself and require that others deal with me respectfully, I send out signals and behave in ways that increase…

— Nathaniel Branden