"Anything may be betrayed, anyone may be forgiven. But not those who lack the courage of their own greatness."
According to Rand, it is our greatest responsibility as humans.
Showing posts with label The Fountainhead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Fountainhead. Show all posts
Thursday
Have the Courage to Become Great
Listen to Your Body
"The splitting pressure in his skull meant...an urge to action."
This is a bit of a non-sequitur in relation to the philosophy that Rand usually espouses, but I thought it was interesting, and something I have been thinking about. That a headache (or backache, or any emotional "ache") is our intuition urging us to action.
Don't Be an Approval Seeker.
"A world in which man will not work for so innocent an incentive as money, but for that headless monster - prestige. The approval of his fellows - their good opinion..."
Rand considers chasing prestige to be the most abhorrent of man's endeavors.
Work on Gaining Self-Respect, Not Respect from Others
"Others were his motive power and his prime concern. He didn't want to be great, but to be thought great. He didn't want to build, but to be thought a great builder. He borrowed from others in order to make an impression on others. There's your actual selflessness. It's his ego he's betrayed and given up. But everyone calls him selfish."
"A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn't need it."
"There is no substitute for competence."
"If one doesn't respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others."
"We have come to hold, in a kind of mawkish stupor, that greatness is to be judged by self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice, we drool, is the ultimate virtue. Is sacrifice a virtue? Can a man sacrifice his integrity? His honor? His freedom? His ideal? His convictions? The honesty of his feelings? The independence of his thought? But these are a man's supreme possessions. Anything he gives up for them is not a sacrifice but an easy bargain. Should we not, then, stop preaching dangerous and vicious nonsense? Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. It is the unsacrificed self that we must respect in man above all."
In the preceding passages Rand explains more clearly what she means by "selfishness" and why it is the most ethical way a man can live.
You Must Love Your Work In Order to do Great Work
"...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 secondary consequences. The work, not the people. Your own action, not any possible object of your charity...that's not the motive of my work. Nor my reason. Nor my reward."
You must love your work. What you do must be enjoyable in and of itself if it is to be of any consequence. That is how greatness is achieved.
Men are Not Motivated Primarily by Money
"Wynand? He's a very naive person. He's naive enough to think that men are motivated primarily by money."
Rand apparently believes (probably correctly) that men are primarily motivated by something else.
The Meaning of Life is to Create
"'Look, Gail.' Roark got up, reached out out, tore a thick branch off a tree, held it in both hands, one fist closed at each end; then, his wrists and knuckles tensed against the resistance, he bent the branch slowly into an arc. 'Now I can make what I want of it: a bow, a spear, a cane, a railing. That's the meaning of life.'
'Your strength?'
'Your work.' He tossed the branch aside. 'The material the earth offers you and what you make of it...'"
Rand on the meaning of life. We are creators. We must create and to love and enjoy our work.
Set an Example for Other Men
"Don't help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don't work for my happiness, my brothers - show me yours - show me that it is possible - show me your achievement - and the knowledge will give me courage for mine."
This is why Rand sees pursuing our own greatness as the greatest gift we can give to others, and why it is the most ethical way to live. This is what she means by selfishness. By becoming as great as we can, we challenge our brothers to lift themselves to the same heights.
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself?
"One can't love man without equally hating most of the creatures who pretend to bear his name. It's one or the other."
"Look, he seems to say, I'm so glad to be a pygmy, that's how virtuous I am...But that's not the spirit that leashed fire, steam, electricity, that crossed oceans in sailing sloops, that built airplanes and dams...and skyscrapers."
This is Rand complaining that to love all men equally is to do a huge disservice to humanity. We should recognize and exalt greatness.
Don't Give Your Enemies a Single Thought
"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."
"But I don't think of you."
This is a conversation between Roark and Toohey, who has spent the whole book trying to destroy Roark's career. It highlights Rand's philosophy that we shouldn't think of what others think of us, but to pursue our own passions.
Are You Sure You Will Look Back on Your Life With Satisfaction?
"God damn you, you have no right - not to be sure! At your age, with your name, with your prestige, with your..."
This is Peter speaking, who has just become very frightened and angry when his partner Guy Francon, the most prestigious man in architecture, has just sought Peter's approval on whether he thought Guy had accomplished something in his life. This scares Peter, because he sees that this is where his life is going.
True Integrity is Rare
"And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's pocket? No, it's not as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say ninety-five percent of humanity were honest, upright men. Only, as you see, they aren't. Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea."
A big theme in the book is integrity. Howard's got it, and the other major characters lack it in varying degrees.
The Meek Shall...be Manipulated
"He liked to speak of faith and he found those who liked to listen. Only, he discovered that the bright, the strong, the able boys of his class felt no need for listening, felt no need of him at all. But the suffering and ill-endowed came to him."
This is a description of Toohey's early experience gaining influence. This is why he wants to make men feel mediocre and suffering, and why he wants to shut down men like Howard Roark. This also seems to be a critique by Rand on Christianity.
We Wear our Soul on Our Face
"There is nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really know another person, except by our first glance him. Because, in that glance, we know everything. Even though we're not always wise enough to unravel the knowledge."
She goes on to say that every man has a "style" of soul. A single characteristic or principle that defines and dominates that man's every thought, act and wish. And that the only way to see a man's soul is on his face, and that this is what we mean by "soul mates".
Pursuit of Happiness, or Greatness?
"Happiness? But that is so middle-class. What is happiness? There are so many things in life so much more important than happiness."
Spoken by Toohey, the novel's antagonist, so it's dubious whether Rand endorses this statement. I think it is worth consideration though. Is "happiness" so middle-class?
Smart People are Losers
"It has been said that men develop brains when they have failed in everything else."
Is this true? There is undoubtedly a grain of truth here; worth consideration. Have people that have developed brains failed in everything else?
Emotions Are Contagious
"It's uncomfortable to be in the same room as you. Tension is contagious, you know."
Ayn Rand on emotional contagion. Science is only catching up this decade.
People May Interpret Your Selfishness as Selflessness
"That was the most selfish thing you've ever seen a man do"
Said Howard Roark, after being accused of being "fanatical and selfless" because he turned down a much-needed commission because he wouldn't be allowed to produce his own work without alterations.
Think for Yourself
"There was no such person as Mrs. Wayne Willmont; there was only a shell containing the opinions of her friends, the picture post cards she had seen, the novels of country squires she had read..."
Rand is not impressed by people who don't think for themselves.
Do You Love your Work, or Love to Escape it?
"These people were enjoying a day of their existence; they were shrieking to the sky their release from the work and the burdens of the days behind them; they had worked and carried the burdens in order to reach a goal - and this was the goal. [Howard] looked at the car as it streaked past. He thought that there was a difference, some important difference, between the consciousness of this day in him and in them."
This occurs while Howard is positively joyful, because he is finally watching his first house getting built. He then watches a car race past with a group of joyful people. The difference is that Howard is deriving his joy from his work, while these people are joyful precisely because they are away from their work.
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