Saturday, January 9, 2010

A whole concert of grunting

"Howard Roark built a temple to the human spirit. He saw man as strong, proud, clean, wise and fearless. He saw man as a heroic being. And he built a temple to that. A temple is a place where man is to experience exaltation. He thought that exaltation comes from the consciousness of being guiltless, of seeing the truth and achieving it, of living up to one's highest possability, of knowing no shame and having no cause for shame, of being able to stand naked in the full sunlight. He thought that exaltation means joy and that joy is man's birthright. He thought that a place built as a setting for man is a sacred place. That is what Howard Roark thought of man and of exaltation..."  

"I condemn Howard Roark. A building they say must be part of its site. In what kind of world did Roark build his temple? For what kind of men? Look around you... When you see a man casting pearls without getting even a pork chop in return - it is not against the swine that you feel indignation. It is against the man who valued his pearls so little that he was willing to fling them into the muck and let them become the occasion for a whole concert of grunting, transcribed by the court stenographer." 

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

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