Nathaniel Branden Quotes (10 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Interview by Alec Mouhibian in The Free Radical (November 2004) http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Mouhibian/Nathaniel_Branden_Interview,_Pt_3.shtml <br class="br">Context: One of the mistakes that Rand makes is that after she condemns a belief or an action, she goes on to tell you the psychology of the person who did it, as if she knows. I focus my judgment on the action and not on the person. My primary interest is: do I admire or dislike this behavior? And there, judgment is important for me. People often attribute all kinds of things to another person, without ever knowing where that person’s coming from. Most of the time, I regard the judgment of people as a waste of time. I regard the judgment of behavior as imperative.

“Rand always says, “Never pass up an opportunity to pass moral judgment.” Well I say: “Look for an opportunity to do something more useful instead.” Nobody was led to virtue by being told he was a scoundrel.”

Nathaniel Branden

Interview by Alec Mouhibian in The Free Radical (November 2004)

“Man's need of self-esteem entails the need for a sense of control over reality – but no control is possible in a universe which, by one's own concession, contains the supernatural, the miraculous and the causeless, a universe in which one is at the mercy of ghosts and demons, in which one must deal, not with the unknown, but with the unknowable; no control is possible if man proposes, but a ghost disposes; no control is possible if the universe is a haunted house.”

Nathaniel Branden

As reprinted in Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness (1964; 2014 ebook), ISBN 978-1-101-13722-2, p. 44 https://books.google.com/books?id=d1GqjIhRejMC&pg=PT44. <br class="br">"Mental Health versus Mysticism and Self-Sacrifice" (1963)