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

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
Reproach
Guilt
Otherwise
Possible
Moral
Wrong
Self
Done

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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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Taking on responsibilities that properly belong to someone else means behaving irresponsibly toward yourself. You need to know where you end and someone else begins. You need to understand boundaries. You need to know what is and is not up to you, what is and is not in your control, what is and is not your responsibility.
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Integrity is congruence between what you know, what you profess, and what you do.
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Our motive is not to prove our self-worth, but to live up to our possibilities.
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Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.
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Sometimes pain is easier to bear alone than happiness.
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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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I have to respect other's opinions even if I don't agree with them.
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We tend to feel most comfortable, most at home, with people whose self esteem level resembles our own.
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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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Capitalism, by its nature, entails a constant process of motion, growth and progress.
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An emotion is both a mental and a physical event.
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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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Fear and pain should be treated as signals not to close our eyes but to open them wider.
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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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Freedom is still the most radical idea of all.
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Most of us are taught from an early age to pay far more attention to signals coming from other people than from within. We are encouraged to ignore our own needs and wants and to concentrate on living up to others expectations.
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Self-esteem is not a luxury it is a profound spiritual need.
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As you grow in self-esteem, your face, manner, way of talking and moving will tend naturally to project the pleasure you take in being alive.
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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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