Best The Fountainhead Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“She said it quite correctly; there was nothing offensive in the quiet politeness of her voice; but following his high note of enthusiasm, her voice struck a tone that seemed flat and deadly in its indifference—as if the two sounds mingled into an audible counterpoint around the melodic thread of her contempt.”

Indifference Contempt Politeness The Fountainhead Dominique Francon

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Look,” said Roark evenly, and pointed at the window. “Can you see the campus and the town? Do you see how many men are walking and living down there? Well, I don’t give a damn what any or all of them think about architecture—or about anything else, for that matter. Why should I consider what their grandfathers thought of it?”

Indifference Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“The structures were austere and simple, until one looked at them and realized what work, what complexity of method, what tension of thought had achieved the simplicity.”

Simple Architecture Complex The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Men hate passion, any great passion. Henry Cameron made a mistake : he loved his work. That was why he fought. That was why he lost.”

Passion Work The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“I hate incompetence. I think it’s probably the only thing I do hate. But it didn’t make me want to rule people. Nor to teach them anything. It made me want to do my own work in my own way and let myself be torn to pieces if necessary.”

Work Incompetence Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Keating felt naked...People were his protection against people. Roark had no sense of people. Others gave Keating a feeling of his own value. Roark gave him nothing.”

People Value Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Don’t you know that most people take most things because that’s what’s given them, and they have no opinion whatever? Do you wish to be guided by what they expect you to think they think or by your own judgment?”

People Thinking Opinion Judgment Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“What would happen to the world without those who do, think, work, produce? Those are the egotists. You don’t think through another’s brain and you don’t work through another’s hands. When you suspend your faculty of independent judgment, you suspend consciousness. To stop consciousness is to stop life.”

Work Judgment Independent Think Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“A man’s spirit is his self. That entity which is his consciousness. To think, to feel, to judge, to act are functions of the ego.”

Self Ego Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone... Men exchange their work by free, mutual consent to mutual advantage when their personal interests agree and they both desire the exchange. If they do not desire it, they are not forced to deal with each other. They seek further. This is the only possible form of relationship between equals. Anything else is a relation of slave to master, or victim to executioner.”

Men Relationship Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“The audience looked at him. They felt he had no chance. They could drop the nameless resentment, the sense of insecurity which he aroused in most people. And so, for the first time, they could see him as he was: a man totally innocent of fear.”

Fearless Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Notice how they’ll accept anything except a man who stands alone. They recognize him at once...There’s a special, insidious kind of hatred for him. They forgive criminals. They admire dictators. Crime and violence are a tie. A form of mutual dependence. They need ties. They’ve got to force their miserable little personalities on every single person they meet. The independent man kills them—because they don’t exist within him and that’s the only form of existence they know. Notice the malignant kind of resentment against any idea that propounds independence. Notice the malice toward an independent man.”

Independent Independence The Fountainhead Gail Wynand

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom.” “You call that freedom?” “To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”

Freedom Independence The Fountainhead Dominique Francon

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“You’re so beautiful, Dominique. Its such a lovely accident on God’s part that there’s one person who matches inside and out.”

Beautiful The Fountainhead Dominique Francon Gail Wynand

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Let’s stop and think for a moment. Is sacrifice a virtue? Can a man sacrifice his integrity? His honor? His freedom? His ideal? His convictions? The honesty of his feeling? The independence of his thought?”

Sacrifice The Fountainhead Gail Wynand

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“He thought...that man’s work should be a higher step, an improvement on nature, not a degradation. He did not want to despise men; he wanted to love and admire them.”

Despise The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“...What kind of a tragedy did you have in your childhood?" "Why, none at all. I had a wonderful childhood. Free and peaceful and not bothered too much by anybody. Well, yes, I did feel bored very often. But I’m used to that.”

Boring Peaceful Free Bothered The Fountainhead Dominique Francon

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Nothing is given to man on earth. Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways—by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary.”

Independent Howard Roark Parasite The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“...the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards.”

Standards Best Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“It’s a law of survival, isn’t it?—to seek the best. I didn’t come for your sake. I came for mine.”

Best Howard Roark The Fountainhead

Book:The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead