36 Nathaniel Branden Quotes

Nathaniel Branden quotes

1. 'Most of the failings of Objectivism all pertain directly or indirectly to issues of psychology.'[1]

2. 'Objectivism says the sole purpose of government is to protect individual rights. I would say the primary purpose of government is to protect individual rights. And any other activities that the government may claim justification for doing must not be of an order that violates anybody's rights. For example, some national weather disaster in which certain problems can arise that the marketplace has no way to respond to quickly enough. Or diseases that travel across borders and don't respect passport laws. I will leave the door open for emergency situations that I just can't imagine being resolved in a market context. If they could be, then they should be. But the fact of emergencies should not be made as justification for violating individual rights, so as you can see, it's a very tiny difference.'[2]

3. 'When your principles seem to be demanding suicide, clearly it's time to check your premises'[3]

4. '[F]or somebody who presents herself as a champion of the joy of living, [Rand] has very rigid rules about the path you must walk on in your pursuit of enjoyment. Of all the objections to Objectivism, none is stupider than the claim that we are a hedonistic philosophy. Man, we are as rigid as the Catholic Church in the 13 th century, you know?'[4]

5. 'I'm very aware of that over-application of the trader principle, as if that's all you need to know to understand human relationships. Good God... [W]ho among you, tell the truth, last time you played with a little kid-or a dog, did you think you're going to have a trade relationship with the dog later in life, for crying out loud? Because there's a good analogy there... As a dog-lover, when I'm looking at a dog nose to nose, the trade is happening right now. The interaction is the reward... Anybody who doesn't understand that, I don't wish to speak to. My official response to such people: they can go fuck themselves.'[5]

6. 'Objectivism comes on, sometimes, as if the most important issue you have to understand is the issue of egoism versus altruism. But that's nowhere near the beginning of the process.'[6]

7. 'Ernest Van Den Haag, a sociologist, wrote a fascinating book called The Jewish Mystique. I read that book, got a lot out of it, and went over to Ayn and said, 'I've got to tell you something shocking.' Because we never thought of ourselves as Jewish in any important way, I announced, laughing, 'We are both exponents of the Jewish messianic tradition. We believe we are here on earth to be signposts pointing to the good life.' What I got out of that book was how Jewish that was. The whole idea of these prophets coming along, or however he was describing it-it fit Ayn and me to a tee. I thought that was very funny.'[7]

8. 'In order to have any sense of control over our own life, we need to know that we're able to make sense out of our experience, in all of its many aspects. It's the need that religion addresses, that philosophy addresses... if you have a moral code that you do your best to live up to, other things being equal, it's very positive in its consequences for your self esteem, even if the moral code is in some ways mistaken. If you conscientiously try to live it to the best of your ability, that would have a salutary effect on your self-esteem. If you violate it, it would have a negative effect on your self-esteem. But suppose you have nothing to violate, no worldview-that absence will limit your self-esteem, because you need to feel aligned with reality. You need feel that you are in appropriate contact with the real world. Now your theory of what the real world is might be right or wrong. But so long as you are able to believe that you are in contact with the real world and are acting on that knowledge, your self-esteem benefits... Regardless, upsetting as it may be to orthodox Objectivists, I think you can show that in the short run and in [a coerced] environment, a person who has some overarching faith has a better chance of surviving. But I wouldn't explain that all away by saying ignorance is bliss. The point is to understand what function a belief system provides. Then you can understand why an imperfect one is sometimes beneficial'[8]

9. '[H]e has been a very underestimated man by his opponents. I think that his understanding and handling of our relationship with the Soviet Union was brilliant. Gorbachev himself gives Reagan credit for effectively ending the Cold War. Are there areas where I would disagree with him? Sure. He was opposed to abortion. He did not believe in total laissez-faire capitalism. He did build up our national debt enormously. But I tell you one thing he did that impressed me so much it almost wipes everything else off the mat. It's something I found thrilling beyond words. And that was: he was in Russia, and he gave a speech in the University of Moscow. And the theme of the speech was to explain to the people there what American capitalism is. Here is the president of the United States, in a distinguished university in a country with whom we've had hostile relationships for decades-getting up, and in the most passionate yet totally non-belligerent way, explaining what economic freedom means, what capitalism means. It was so extraordinary in the moral clarity that he brought to his presentation that I'll remember it, with great admiration, forever.'[9]

10. 'Most of the time, I regard the judgment of people as a waste of time. I regard the judgment of behavior as imperative.'[10]

11. It would be hard to name a more certain sign of poor self-esteem than the need to perceive some other group as inferior.

12. Pride is the emotional reward of achievement. It is not a vice to be overcome but a virtue to be attained.

1. To preserve an unclouded capacity for the enjoyment of life is an unusual moral and psychological achievement. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the prerogative of mindlessness, but the exact opposite: It is the reward of self-esteem.

2. A commitment to lifelong learning is a natural expression of the practice of living consciously.

3. 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.

4. If we are happy within ourselves, we don't accept or demand that our partner should fulfill every need. We need to be comfortable with our own company.

5. The world belongs to those who persevere.

6. In the nature of our existence, we must act to achieve values. And in order to act appropriately, we need to value the beneficiary of our actions. In order to seek values, we must consider ourselves worthy of enjoying them. In order to fight for our happiness, we must consider ourselves worthy of happiness.

7. I cannot remember a time when the question of why people behave as they do was not intensely interesting to me. The desire to understand was very important. When I was young, I was aware of the fact that much of the time, the reasons a person gave for his actions were not the actual reasons.

8. Suppose you feel you cannot accept some fact about yourself. Then own your refusal to accept. Own the block. Embrace it fully. And watch it begin to disappear. The principal is this: Begin where you are-accept that. Then change and growth become possible.

9. Doing more of what doesn't work doesn't work.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. A goal without an action plan is a daydream.

13. We tend to feel most comfortable, "most at home", with people whose self esteem level resembles our own.

14. Loving consciously does not mean subjecting your relationship to endless analysis. It means something much simpler: paying attention. Noticing. This requires presence.

15. Your life is important. Whether you achieve what you want in life matters. Whether you are happy matters. Honor and fight for your highest potential. Self-realizatio n-the realization of the best within you-is the noblest goal of your existence.

16. If you do not feel deserving of happiness, consciously or subconsciously, or if you have accepted the idea that happiness is somehow wrong or cannot last, you will not respond appropriately when happiness comes knocking at your door in the form of romantic love. No matter how much you may have waited and cried, you will not welcome love when it arrives-you will find a way to sabotage it. What a challenge to resist this temptation! What an opportunity for true spiritual growth and transformation-to defy your negative feelings and honor the gift that life offers you!

17. It is painful to face the self we know we have never had the integrity to honor and assert.

18. If my aim is to prove I am 'enough,' the project goes on to infinity-because the battle was already lost on the day I conceded the issue was debatable.

19. 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.

20. It is a mistake to look at someone who is self assertive and say, "It's easy for her, she has good self-esteem." One of the ways you build self-esteem is by being self-assertive when it is not easy to do so. There are always times when self-assertiven ess requires courage, no matter how high your self-esteem.

21. Reason and emotion are not antagonists. What seems like a struggle between two opposing ideas or values, one of which, automatic and unconscious, manifests itself in the form of a feeling.

22. One of the most significant characteristics of healthy self esteem is that it is the state of one who is not at war either with himself or with others.

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

24. The greatest barrier to achievement and success is not lack of talent or ability but rather the feeling that achievement and success, above a certain level, are outside our self-concept-our image of who we are and what is appropriate to us.