Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden started reading Ayn Rand's "Fountainhead" in the summer of '44 as he was introduced to it by his sister and her giggling friends.
He met Rand in California where he attended college for psychology. She responded to his fan letter.
"Atlas Shrugged" was dedicated to Branden and he became her intellectual heir. The two carried on an affair, though each was married. After a dispute, they parted and never publicly reconciled.
Branden has written several books on psychology and self-esteem. He practiced psychotherapy in Los Angeles.
“Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.”
Nathaniel Branden
“Faith is the commitment of one's consciousness to beliefs for which one has no sensory evidence or rational proof. When man rejects reason as his standard of judgement, only one alternative standard remains to him: his feelings. A mystic is a man who treats his feelings as tools of cognition. Faith is the equation of feelings with knowledge”
Nathaniel Branden
“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”
Nathaniel Branden
“Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.”
Nathaniel Branden
“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.”
Nathaniel Branden
“There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.”
Nathaniel Branden
“To love is to see myself in you and to wish to celebrate myself with you. What I love is the embodiment of my values in another person. Love is an act of self-assertion, self-expression and a celebration of being alive.”
Nathaniel Branden
“No solo hay que estar dispuesto a soportar el dolor y el sufrimiento sino que tambièn hay que asumir la soledad, la cruda realidad de que la niña pequeña que una vez fue, no tuvo -y no tendrà jamàs- los padres que necesitaba y hubiera deseado.”
Nathaniel Branden
“How do we keep our inner fire alive? Two things, at minimum, are needed: an ability to appreciate the positives in our life – and a commitment to action. Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: ‘What's good in my life?’ and ‘What needs to be done?”
Nathaniel Branden
“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.”
Nathaniel Branden