Introduction
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Roark and Lansing
(Page 320)
"The causes of illusions are not pretty to discover. They're either vicious or tragic. This one is both. Mainly vicious. And it's not a gag. But we won't go into that now. All I mean is that a board of directors is one or two ambitious men-and a lot of ballast. I mean that groups of men are vacuums. Great big empty nothings. They say we can't visualize a total nothing. Hell, sit at any committee meeting. The point is only who choose to fill that nothing. It's a tough battle. The toughest. It's simple enough to fight any enemy, so long as he's there to be fought. But when he isn't...Don't look at me like that, as if I were crazy. You ought to know. You've fought a vacuum all your life."
(Page 321)
"Why are you fighting for me like that?" Roark Asked.
"Why are you a good architect? Because you have certain standards of what is good, and they're your own, and you stand by them. I want a good hotel, and I want certain standards of what is good, and they're my own, and you're the one who can give me what I want. And when I fight for you, I'm doing-on my side of it-just what you're doing when you design a building. Do you think integrity is the monopoly of the artist? 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 can see, they aren't. Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea. That presupposes the ability to think. Thinking is something one doesn't borrow or pawn. And yet, if I were asked to choose a symbol for humanity as we know it, I wouldn't choose a cross nor an eagle no a lion and unicorn. I'd choose three gilded balls."
And as Roark looked at him, he added: "Don't worry. They're all against me. But I have one advantage: they don't know what they want. I do."