Quotes from book

The Fountainhead

“Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's individual value-judgments.”

“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.”

“Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched".”

“I dont work with collectives. I don't consult, i don't co-operate, I don't collaborate.”

“She knew that she could not have reached this white serenity except as the sum of all the colors, of all the violence she had known.”

“People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they’re reflecting too… Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.”

“Never ask people about your work.”

“The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.”

“You have been the one encounter in my life that can never be repeated”

“Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”

“Worry is a waste of emotional reserve".”

“But I don't think of you.

(Howard Roark)”

“I don't wish to be the symbol of anything. I'm only myself.”

“Every loneliness is a pinnacle”

“One loses everything when one loses one's sense of humor.”

“It's so graceless, being a martyr. It's honoring your adversaries too much.”

“She thought: at this moment, the glass stem between his fingers feels just like the one between mine. We have this much in common.”

“I want to know that I've accomplished something. I want to feel that it had some meaning. At the last summing up, I want to be sure it wasn't all-for nothing.”

“Have you noticed that the imbecile always smiles? Man's first frown is the first touch of God on his forehead. The touch of thought.”