The questions of how Roark's behavior is selfish — and of what is virtuous about selfishness — can be answered only in the context of the entire story. Ayn Rand challenges 2,500 years of moral philosophy in this book. "What does it mean to be selfish?" she asks. It can only mean, in its denotation, to be concerned with oneself — with one's self. But one's self consists of two components: the values that one chooses and the thinking or judgment that one uses to do the choosing. This issue of selfishness is the one that Roark's life dramatizes. Roark is true, under all circumstances, to his mind, to his judgment, to his values. He certainly wants the commission for the Manhattan Bank Building, and he wants the money and the career boost it will bring. But these are not as important to him as the integrity of his design. If he permits the adulteration of his design to gain the commission, it would constitute a self-sacrifice. It would involve giving up that which is more important to him for that which is less. Such a self-betrayal Roark refuses to make.
Roark realizes that his happiness requires his buildings to be erected as he designs them. Were he to compromise his design for fame and fortune, he would not be happy. Every time Roark looked at the building on which he had compromised — whenever he thought of it — he would experience only shame. Roark understands that happiness requires commitment, in action, to one's values. To surrender the things most important to him is a sacrifice that Roark will not make. His rejection of the Manhattan Bank commission is the act of remaining true to his values, that is, to his self — in action and under extreme duress. This scene in The Fountainhead often recalls Polonius' famous line to Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet — "To thine own self be true, and it follows as the night the day that thou cannot play false with any man." Polonius says it in Hamlet; Howard Roark lives it and shows what it looks like in The Fountainhead.
