Top 180 Nathaniel Branden Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “In the inner courtroom of my mind, mine is the only judgment that counts.”

— Nathaniel Branden

152. “Self-respecting men and women think about the consequences of their actions-and are willing to take responsibility for them.”

— Nathaniel Branden

153. “The real basic power of an individual isn’t what he or she knows; it’s the ability to think and learn and face new challenges.”

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

156. “What we make an effort to learn and what we achieve is based, at least in part, on what we think is possible and appropriate to us.”

— Nathaniel Branden

157. “One of the most important forms of heroism is the heroism of conciousness, the heroism of thought: the willingness to tolerate aloneness.”

— Nathaniel Branden

158. “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...”

— Nathaniel Branden

159. “Someone who loves us passionately is motivated to know and understand us to a greater depth than someone with whom our relationship is more casual.”

— Nathaniel Branden

160. “Ideas do matter and do have consequences.”

— Nathaniel Branden

161. “So far as we can ascertain, in primitive cultures the idea of romantic love did not exist at all.”

— Nathaniel Branden

162. “We are anxious when there is a dissonance between our “knowledge” and the perceivable facts. Since our “knowledge” is not to be doubted or questioned, it is the facts that have to be altered...”

— Nathaniel Branden

163. “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

164. “The concept of romantic love as a widely accepted cultural value and as the ideal basis of marriage was a product of the nineteenth century.”

— Nathaniel Branden

165. “The music that inspires the souls of lovers exists within themselves and the private universe they occupy. They share it with each other; they do not share it with the tribe or with society. The courage to hear that music and to honor it is one of the prerequisites of romantic love.”

— Nathaniel Branden

166. “Sometimes self-assertiveness is manifested through volunteering an idea or paying a compliment; sometimes through a polite silence that signals nonagreement; sometimes by refusing to smile at a tasteless joke.”

— Nathaniel Branden

167. “Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness – that is, the absence of supportive feedback from their social environment.”

— Nathaniel Branden

168. “Self-esteem is a particular way of experiencing the self. Its two components are self-efficacy and self-respect. Self-efficacy is the experience of competence in thinking, learning, making appropriate decisions, and responding effectively to the challenges of life. Self-respect is the experience of success, achievement, love, joy, fulfilment – in a word, happiness – are natural and appropriate to us.”

— Nathaniel Branden

169. “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.”

— Nathaniel Branden

170. “While healthy self-assertiveness requires the ability to say no, it is ultimately tested not by what we are against but by what we are for.”

— Nathaniel Branden

171. “If his or her upbringing is successful, the young man or woman will have evolved out of that dependency into a self-respecting and self-responsible human being who is able to respond to the challenges of life competently and enthusiastically.”

— Nathaniel Branden

172. “If we do not believe in ourselves- neither in our efficacy nor in our goodness- the universe is a frightening place.”

— Nathaniel Branden

173. “Success in life belongs to those who do.”

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

175. “Men are judged, and are encouraged to judge themselves, by how well they can financially take care of others. Men are socialized to be “servants” fully as much as women; only the forms of culturally encouraged servitude are different. If a man cannot support a woman, he tends to lose stature in her eyes and in his own.”

— Nathaniel Branden

176. “The greatest crime we commit against ourselves is not that we may deny and disown our shortcomings but that we deny and disown our greatness – because it frightens us.”

— Nathaniel Branden

177. “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.”

— Nathaniel Branden

178. “Sentence Completions to Facilitate the Art of Living Consciously.”

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

180. “If we are willing to take responsibility for that which is within our power, I think that frees us to see clearly that which is not, and to understand, therefore, the limits of our accountability. But if we too often fail to take such responsibility and feel vaguely guilty over our avoidance, the paradox is that in our confusion we often end up blaming ourselves for events beyond our control.”

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

182. “The value of self-esteem lies not merely in the fact that it allows us to feel better but that it allows us to live better – to respond to challenges and opportunities more resourcefully and more appropriately.”

— Nathaniel Branden

183. “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.”

— Nathaniel Branden

184. “When we behave in ways that conflict with our judgment of what is appropriate, we lose face in our own eyes.”

— Nathaniel Branden

185. “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.”

— Nathaniel Branden

186. “No one owes me the fulfillment of my wishes.”

— Nathaniel Branden

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

— Nathaniel Branden

188. “What a great teacher, a great parent, a great psychotherapist and a great coach have in common is a deep belief in the potential of the person with whom they are concerned. They relate to the person from their vision of his or her worth and value.”

— Nathaniel Branden