The Fountainhead

Roark's moral stature is based on his commitment to his own mind regarding all issues of his life. He recognizes that human beings must rely on their minds for survival — that where animals employ such characteristics as speed of foot, size, strength, claws and fangs, wings, and/or fur in order to survive, man cannot rely on these physical attributes. He must be a thinker to grow food, build houses, manufacture clothes, and perform the other creative actions necessary to prosper on earth. But the mind is an attribute of the individual; just as there is no group stomach to digest for men collectively, so there is no group mind to perform collective thinking. Each man must accept responsibility for his own thinking and his own survival; each must be sovereign in living by his own most conscientious judgment. If a man sincerely — in his most scrupulously honest judgment — believes a claim to be true, then he must hold to this belief even though all of society opposes him. To be a thinker means to go by the factual evidence of a case, not by the judgment of others. To be a thinker means that if a man recognizes the perfection of an architectural design, he must not compromise it merely because others oppose him. Such willingness to live by his own thinking is independence and integrity — this is virtue. When Roark stands by the integrity of his designs, he stands by his mind. This is what makes him a moral and a practical man. For it is by means of his mind — not by conformity to others — that Roark builds. It is only by the fullest use of his mind that he — or any individual who does productive work — succeeds. A human being learns from others, as Roark does from Cameron, but he can neither think for others nor permit others to think for him. Any productive activity — including the construction work performed by Roark's friend, Mike Donnigan — requires understanding. Constructive work of any kind is not achieved by blindly mimicking the actions of others. The activities of building and growing — creating food, houses, automobiles, medical cures, airplanes, and computers — are intellectual in nature. All successful living for human beings require commitment to the mind. Roark's buildings, his ultimate commercial success, and his happiness are a result of living by his own thinking. Successful living forbids man to betray his mind. To surrender one's judgment is to exist like Peter Keating, a form in which no success or happiness is possible. Moral virtue is a requirement of practical success, not a hindrance to it.