"Man cannot survive except through the use of his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. Man has no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons, and to make weapons—a process of thought. From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man—the function of his reasoning mind. But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act—the process of reason—must be performed by each man alone. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach. No man can use his lungs to breathe for another man. No man can use his brain to think for another. All the functions of body and spirit are private. They cannot be shared or transferred."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chapter XVIII, p. 737 ; testimony of Howard Roark
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Fountainhead
119 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Fountainhead →
Related Quotes
"Howard Roark laughed."
"Do you mean to tell me that you're thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?" "Yes."…"
"Why do you want me to think that this is great architecture?" He pointed to the picture of the Parthenon. "That," sai…"
"Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. N…"
"Every form has its own meaning. Every man creates his meaning and form and goal. Why is it so important—what others h…"
"But you see, I have, let's say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I've chosen the work I …"
"I don't intend to build in order to have clients; I intend to have clients in order to build."
"If you want my advice, Peter, you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not ab…"
"How do you always manage to decide?" "How can you let others decide for you?"
"I am Gail Wynand, the man who has committed every crime except the foremost one: that of ascribing futility to the wo…"