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Quote by Nathaniel Branden

“It is humiliating to realize that when you drive yourself underground, when you fake who you are, often you do so for people you do not even like or respect.”

Quote by Nathaniel Branden

Author

Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden

Nathaniel Branden was a renowned psychotherapist and author, best known for his contributions to the fields of personal growth and self-actualization. His work has had a profound impact on modern psychology, particularly in the areas of self-psychology and emotional intelligence. more

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“I believe...that to be very poor and very beautiful is most probably a moral failure more than an artistic success. Shakespeare would have done well in any generation because he would have refused to die in a corner; he would have taken the false gods and made them over; he would have taken the current formulae and forced them into something lesser men thought them incapable of. Alive today he would undoubtedly have written and directed motion pictures, plays, and God knows what. Instead of saying, "This medium is not good," he would have used it and made it good. If some people called some his work cheap (which some of it was), he wouldn't have cared a rap, because he would know that without some vulgarity there is no complete man. He would have hated refinement, as such, because it is always a withdrawal, and he was too tough to shrink from anything.”

“You are constantly being trained to be heroic only in the service of your masters - only in slaughter and sacrifice and subjugation. But there is no heroism in serving your masters. Real heroism is questioning why you have masters at all. All these stories, all these fantasies, all these superpowers - are designed to steal heroism from you, to make it impossible, fantastical, remote, and unachievable - and make you useful to your masters (as a hit man, if needed). What is the opposite of this? The opposite of fantasy is philosophy. The opposite of mythology is integrity. And integrity is truth in action.”

“Someone once said that integrity comes from caring about what other people think of you; but I don't think that integrity comes from caring what other people think about you. I think that integrity comes from you caring about how you affect other people. If your integrity comes from caring about what others think about you, then your integrity will have no foundation and it will always change based upon other people. And that's not integrity at all.”