I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life.
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that's much harder?
My dear fellow, who will let you?" "That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?
But I don't think of you. - Howard Roark
The great creators-the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors-stood alone against the men of their time.
The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.
Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?
I am a man who does not exist for others.
I could die for you. But I couldn't, and wouldn't, live for you.
Toohey: "Mr. Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us." Roark: "But I don't think of you.
You must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences.
The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.
I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need. I wished to come here and say that I am a man who does not exist for others." - Howard Roark
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.
Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burnt at the stake he'd taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived and he lifted darkness from the face of the Earth.
This is pity,” he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.
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!
Peter Keating: "Do you always have to have a purpose? Do you always have to be so damn serious? Can't you ever do things without reason, just like everybody else? You're so serious, so old. Everything's important with you. Everything's great, significant in some way, every minute, even when you keep still. Can't you ever be comfortable-and unimportant?" | Howard Roark: "No."
or simply:
