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

Nathaniel Branden

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Nathaniel Branden
Age: 84 †
Born: 1930
Born: April 9
Died: 2014
Died: December 3
Academic
Non-Fiction Writer
Psychologist
Psychotherapist
Self
Adversarial
Refusal
Depression
Acceptance
Compassion
Relationship

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For the rational, psychologically healthy man, the desire for pleasure is the desire to celebrate his control over reality. For the neurotic, the desire for pleasure is the desire to escape from reality.
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The highest compliment one can be paid by another human being is to be told: 'Because of what you are, you are essential to my happiness.'
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For I to become we and yet remain I, is one of the great challenges of marriage.
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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.
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The stability we cannot find in the world, we must create within our own persons.
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Capitalism, by its nature, entails a constant process of motion, growth and progress.
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Our motive is not to prove our self-worth, but to live up to our possibilities.
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The higher our self-esteem, the stronger the drive to express ourselves, reflecting the sense of richness within. The lower our self-esteem, the more urgent the need to prove ourselves or to forget ourselves by living mechanically and unconsciously.
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If you overcome your fear to ask someone for a date, a raise, or help with a project, that is an act of self-assertiveness. You are moving out into life rather than contracting and withdrawing.
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Where we see self esteem, we see self acceptance. High self esteem individual tend to avoid falling into an adversarial relationship with themselves.
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The first love affair you must consummate is the love affair with yourself. Only then are you ready for a romantic relationship.
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Freedom is still the most radical idea of all.
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It would be hard to name a more certain sign of poor self-esteem than the need to perceive some other group as inferior.
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The practice of assertiveness: being authentic in our dealings with others treating our values and persons with decent respect in social contexts refusing to fake the reality of who we are or what we esteem in order to avoid disapproval the willingness to stand up for ourselves and our ideas in appropriate ways in appropriate contexts.
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If we do not believe in ourselves- neither in our efficacy nor in our goodness- the universe is a frightening place.
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The reputation you have with yourself - your self-esteem - is the single most important factor for a fulfilling life.
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It is painful to face the self we know we have never had the integrity to honor and assert.
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There is no value-judgment more important to a man--no factor more decisive in his psychological development and motivation--than the estimate he passes on himself.
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If we do have realistic confidence in our mind and value, if we feel secure within ourselves, we tend to experience the world as open to us and to respond appropriately to challenges and opportunities.
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Feel deeply to think clearly.
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