The-fountainhead Quotes

...Opinion without a rational process.

You love your work. God help you, you love it! And thats the curse. That's the brand on your forehea...

I have yet to see a genius or a hero who, if stuck with a burning match, would feel less pain than h...

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagr...

...if ever you hear a man telling you that you must be happy, that it’s your natural right, that you...

The exquisite kindliness of her manner suggested that their relationship was of no possible conseque...

A young woman stood before the railing, speaking to the reception clerk. Her slender body seemed out...

The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man’s first duty is to himself. His moral law is n...

I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom.”“You call that freedo...

Roark spoke quietly. He was the only man in the room who felt certain of his own words.

He’s not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander’s delusion—prestige. ...

Notice how they’ll accept anything except a man who stands alone. They recognize him at once...There...

It’s easier to donate a few thousands to charity and think oneself noble than to base self-respect o...

My real soul...? It’s real only when it’s independent...

A man’s spirit is his self. That entity which is his consciousness. To think, to feel, to judge, to ...

And isn’t that the root of every despicable action? Not selfishness, but precisely the absence of a ...

You’re so beautiful, Dominique. Its such a lovely accident on God’s part that there’s one person who...

He knew, while he spoke, that it was useless, because his words sounded as if they were hitting a va...

You never wanted me to be real. You never wanted anyone to be. But you didn’t want me to show it. Yo...

If you want my advice, Peter,” he said at last, “you’ve made a mistake already. By asking me. By ask...

Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men have no time and no use for you. Happy me...

I want to sleep with you. Now, tonight, and at any time you may care to call me. I want your naked b...

In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone... Men exchange their work by ...

Men have been taught that the ego is the synonym of evil, and selflessness the ideal of virtue. But ...

...What kind of a tragedy did you have in your childhood?""Why, none at all. I had a wonderful child...

Don’t you know that most people take most things because that’s what’s given them, and they have no ...

Keating felt naked...People were his protection against people. Roark had no sense of people. Others...

What would happen to the world without those who do, think, work, produce? Those are the egotists. Y...

And, after all, you’ve got to live.”“Not that way,” said Roark.

..it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. It is the unsacrificed self that ...

You can fake virtue for an audience. You can’t fake it in your own eyes. Your ego is your strictest ...

When they lay in bed together it was—as it had to be, as the nature of the act demanded—an act of vi...

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

She found a dark satisfaction in pain—because that pain came from him.

I’m not capable of suffering completely. I never have. It goes only down to a certain point and then...

The faces stood out, separate, lonely, no two alike. Behind each, there were the years of a life liv...

I’ll listen if you want me to... But I think I should tell you now that nothing you can say will mak...

The unrecognized genius—that’s an old story. Have you ever thought of a much worse one—the genius re...

The audience looked at him. They felt he had no chance. They could drop the nameless resentment, the...

And she thought, with a vicious thrill, of what these people would do if they read her mind in this ...

...Is it an inspiring sight to see a man commit a heroic gesture, and then learn that he goes to vau...

His face was like a law of nature—a thing one could not question, alter or implore. It had high chee...

She saw the faces streaming past her, the faces made alike by fear—fear as a common denominator, fea...

She saw the faces streaming past her, the faces made alike by fear—fear as a common denominator, fea...

I want to sleep with you. Now, tonight, and at any time you may care to call me. I want your naked b...

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

All that which proceeds from man’s independent ego is good. All that which proceeds from man’s depen...

The egotist in the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands abo...

Let’s stop and think for a moment. Is sacrifice a virtue? Can a man sacrifice his integrity? His hon...

I think the only cardinal evil on earth is that of placing your prime concern within other men. I’ve...

Great men can’t be ruled... The great is the rare, the difficult, the exceptional.

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

The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is n...

..each remembered other moments, on a sleepless night, on an afternoon of steady rain, in a church, ...