Howard Roark Quotes

Howard Roark stood as a role model for me - as exactly the way I already was living. Even at that tender age [18] I already felt that. And it was intuitive or instinctive or inbred stubbornness or whatever; but I had already made those choices and suffered for them.

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.

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!

But I don't think of you. - Howard Roark

The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.

"You were not born to be a second-hander." Howard Roark to Gail Wynand in "The Fountainhead"

I think everything I do has Howard Roark [hero of The Fountainhead] in it, you know, as much as anything. The person I write for is Howard Roark.

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.

I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life.

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.

Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?

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

I am a man who does not exist for others.

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?

You'll get everything society can give a man. You'll keep all the money. You'll take any fame or honor anyone might want to grant. You'll accept such gratitude as the tenants might feel. And I - I'll take what nobody can give a man, except himself. I will have built Cortlandt. - Howard Roark

My dear fellow, who will let you?" "That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?

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."

The great creators-the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors-stood alone against the men of their time.

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.

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

I could die for you. But I couldn't, and wouldn't, live for you.

I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.