269 Quotes by Nathaniel Branden

The higher our self-esteem, the more likely we are to be creative in our work, which means the more successful we are likely to be. The higher our self-esteem, the more ambitious we tend to be, not necessarily in a career or financial sense, but in terms of what we hope to experience in life – emotionally, creatively and spiritually.

To attain “success” without attaining positive self-esteem is to be condemned to feeling like an imposter anxiously awaiting exposure.

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.

I have to respect other’s opinions even if I don’t agree with them.

Romantic love is a passionate spiritual-emotional-sexual attachment between a man and a woman that reflects a high regard for the value of each other’s person.

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.

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.

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

There is only one reality – the reality knowable to reason. And if man does not choose to perceive it, there is nothing else for him to perceive; if it is not of this world that he is conscious, then he is not conscious at all.