Quote

If you choose not to live self-responsibly, you count on others to make up your default. No one abjures self-responsibility on a desert island.

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
Island
Make
Islands
Count
Desert
Choose
Responsibility
Others
Responsibly
Live
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More quotes by Nathaniel Branden

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A depression is a large-scale decline in production and trade...there is nothing in the nature of a free-market economy to cause such an event.
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Even when our life is most difficult, it is important to remember that something within us is keeping us alive- the life force-that lift us, energizes us, pulls us back sometimes from the abyss of despair. True spirituality does not exist without love of life.
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Respect starts with ourselves.
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When we bury our feelings, we also bury ourselves. It means we exist in a state of alienation. We rarely know it, but we are lonely for ourselves.
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Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.
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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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If you face life without confidence in your own powers, you succumb too easily to setbacks and adversity you lack the will to persevere.
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The natural inclination of a child is to take pleasure in the use of the mind no less than of the body. The child's primary business is learning. It is also the primary entertainment. To retain that orientation into adulthood, so that consciousness is not a burden but a joy, is the mark of the successfully developed human being.
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A bully hides his fears with fake bravado. That is the opposite of self-assertiveness.
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To exist without purpose is to be at the mercy of the chance encounter, the chance invitation, the chance phone call, the chance event- always being controlled by forces external to oneself.
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Feel deeply to think clearly.
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The ultimate test of our integrity is not how we deal with those whom we agree but how we deal with those who we do not agree.
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Our motive is not to prove our self-worth, but to live up to our possibilities.
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Set goals that don't feel all that easy, that challenge you, stimulate you, and give you a chance to stretch and push yourself. That is where the power of growth lies.
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What is guilt? It is moral self-reproach-I did wrong when it was possible to have done otherwise.
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You have a right to your feelings. Your feelings are there to tell you something, but they are not infallible guides to behavior.
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For children mastery entails struggle. This means they must be permitted to struggle. If parents inappropriately step in to help-out of impatience or solicitude-they sabotage important learning. Among other things, the child is unlikely to discover the advantages of perseverance and self-discipline.
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High self esteem people can surely be knocked down by an excess of troubles, but they are quickerto pick themselves up again.
Nathaniel Branden
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If you feel inadequate to face challenges, unworthy of love or respect, untitled to happiness, and fear assertive thought, wants, or needs- if you lack basic self trust, self-respect, and self-confidence- your self-esteem deficiency will limit you, no matter what other assets you possess.
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The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.
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