Sep
29
2010
Quotes from “The Fountainhead”
I’ll keep adding new Fountainhead quotes as they strike me…
“But you see, I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards — and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.” (13)
“I don’t intend to build in order to serve or help anyone. I don’t intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.”
The Dean: “How do you propose to force your ideas on them?”
“I don’t propose to force or be forced. Those who want me will come to me.” (14)
“Do you wish to be guided by what [the public] expects you to think they think or by your own judgment?”
The Customer: “You can’t force it down their throats.”
“You don’t have to. You must only be patient. Because on your side you have reason — oh, I know, it’s something no one really wants to have on his side — and against you, you only have just a vague, fat, blind inertia.” (163)
To say “I love you” one must know first how to say the “I”. (388)
The person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him. (461)
Men have been taught that their first concern is to relieve the suffering of others. But suffering is a disease. Should one come upon it, one tries to give relief and assistance. To make that the highest test of virtue is to make suffering the most important part of life. Then man must wish to see others suffer — in order that he may be virtuous. Such is the nature of altruism. The creator is not concerned with disease, but with life. Yet the work of the creators have eliminated one form of disease after another, in man’s body and spirit, and brought more relief from suffering than any altruist could ever conceive. (713)
The integrity of a man’s creative work is of greater importance than any charitable endeavor. Those of you who do not understand this are the men who’re destroying the world. (717)
