His first-handed method is also the principle that explains Roark's integrity. Integrity, according to Ayn Rand, is commitment in action to one's own best thinking, to one's own mind. Integrity is the "practice what you preach" virtue — the principle that you must put into practical action the ideas you hold. But first, of course, you must hold ideas. Integrity requires a man to be a thinker. Howard Roark meets both of these requirements. He is a brilliant thinker and he acts on his thinking. He is not a hypocrite.
Further, Roark is a selfish man, in the positive sense that Ayn Rand means this. He is true to his values, to his convictions, to his thinking, to his mind, to his self. When the board of the Manhattan Bank Building wants to alter his design, Roark rejects the proposal for the new design, calling his behavior "the most selfish thing you've ever seen a man do." Despite being destitute, he gives up a lucrative, publicity-generating commission in order to stand by the integrity of his design — and he calls this "selfish." To be true to his self, a man must first have a self. He must think independently, he must judge, he must form values and he must act in pursuit of those values. He must never sacrifice them. This is exactly what Roark does: The integrity of his design is far more important to him than the money or recognition that will accrue from the commission. In remaining true to his values and judgment, Roark is true to the deepest core of his self. This is selfishness in its highest and best sense.
An important moral question that Ayn Rand seeks to answer in Roark's character concerns the relationship between the moral and the practical. Many people in real life — as well as Gail Wynand and Dominique Francon in the novel — believe that practical success requires a betrayal of an individual's moral principles. It is often said that to succeed one must "play the game," or conform to the practices of one's company or profession even if one finds them unethical. To hold to one's scruples, according to this way of thinking, results only in loss of job or income, in a failure of some form. But in The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand builds a convincing argument that this cynical view is false. Howard Roark, she shows, is both a moral man and a practical man. His strength of character is demonstrated throughout the story. He is fully committed to the artistic integrity of every one of his designs, and he takes a laborer's job in a granite quarry rather than compromise on the smallest detail of his building. Integrity means conscientious commitment, in action, to the principles held by your own mind — and Roark exemplifies this virtue consistently, including when faced with destitution. Further, he is also a practical man. Roark, above all other characters in the novel, is a can-do giant of supreme competence. He excels at every aspect of building — from design to construction — and by the novel's end, he has achieved a significant commercial success. He is now established, on his own terms, in the field of architecture. That Roark is both a moral and a practical individual should be clear. But the most original aspect of Ayn Rand's presentation of Roark is that he is practical because he is moral, that these two qualities exist in a causal relationship.
