The Fountainhead (1949) - Quotes

Claiming Ownership and Individuality

Taglines: No Man Takes What's Mine!

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The Value of Individualism Over Altruism

Peter Keating: But it's a humanitarian project. Think of the people who live in slums. If you can give them decent housing, you can perform a noble deed. Would you do it just for their sake?

Howard Roark: No! A man who works for others without payment is a slave! I do not believe that slavery is noble. Not in any form, nor for any purpose, whatsoever!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

A Marriage Without Expectations

Dominique Francon: I'll marry you. Don't you want to ask me any questions?

Gail Wynand: No.

Dominique Francon: Thank you. You're making it easier for me.

Gail Wynand: Whatever your reason, I shall accept it. What I want to find in our marriage will remain my own concern. I exact no promises and impose no obligations. Incidentally, since it is of no importance to you, I love you.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Conflict Over Creative Freedom

Ellsworth Toohey: There's the building that should have been yours. There are buildings going up all over the city which are great chances refused and given to incompetent fools. You're walking the streets while they're doing the work that you love but cannot obtain. This city is closed to you. It is I who have done it! Don't you want to know my motive?

Howard Roark: No!

Ellsworth Toohey: I'm fighting you and shall fight you in every way I can.

Howard Roark: You're free to do what you please!

Ellsworth Toohey: Mr. Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me in any words you wish.

Howard Roark: But I don't think of you!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Advice on Architectural Talent

Ellsworth Toohey: I feel it is my duty to offer you my advice.

Gail Wynand: Whom do you recommend?

Ellsworth Toohey: The rising star of the profession, Peter Keating. No other architect can equal his ability. That Mr. Wynant, is my sincere opinion.

Gail Wynand: I believe you.

Ellsworth Toohey: You do?

Gail Wynand: Of course, but Mr. Toohey, why should I consider your opinion?

Ellsworth Toohey: Well, after all, I am the architectural critic of The Banner.

Gail Wynand: My dear Toohey, don't confuse me with my readers!

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

The Struggle Between Individuality and Compromise

Dominique Francon: [to Roark] I wish I had never seen your building. It's the things that we admire or want that enslave us. I'm not easy to bring into submission.

Henry Cameron: I told them that the form of a building must follow its function.

Gail Wynand: [to Roark, regarding the Wynand Building] Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours - and could have been mine.

Peter Keating: You can't hope to survive unless you learn how to compromise. Now, watch me! In just a few short years I'll shoot to the top of the architectural profession because I'm going to give the public what it wants.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Collective Conformity in Artistic Value

Ellsworth Toohey: Artistic value is achieved collectively by each man subordinating himself to the standards of the majority.

The Market of the Spirit Explained

Ellsworth Toohey: I play the stock market of the spirit and I sell short.

The Triumph of Individual Vision and Creation

Howard Roark: [closing statements in his self-defense in the trial against him] Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light. But he left them a gift they had not conceived of, and he lifted darkness off the earth. Through out the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. The great creators, the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors, stood alone against the men of their time. Every new thought was opposed. Every new invention was denounced. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered, and they paid—but they won.

Integrity in Architecture and Humanity

Howard Roark: A building has integrity, just as a man and just as seldom! It must be true to its own idea, have its own form, and serve its own purpose!

The Value of Work Over Altruism

Howard Roark: Before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the people! Your own work, not any possible object of your charity. I'll be glad if men who need it find a better method of living in the house I built, but that's not the motive of my work, nor my reason, nor my reward! My reward, my purpose, my life, is the work itself - my work done my way! Nothing else matters to me!