{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/he-had-always",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/he-had-always.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/he-had-always.md",
  "id": "e443b519-da4c-4504-bec0-4291521e72d0",
  "slug": "he-had-always",
  "text": "He had always wanted to write music, and he could give no other identity to the thing he sought. If you want to know what it is, he told himself, listen to the first phrases of Tchaikovsky's \"First Concerto\"—or to the last movement of Rachmaninoff's Second. Men have not found the words for it nor the deed nor the thought, but they have found the music. Let me see that in one single act of man on earth. Let me see it made real. Let me see the answer to the promise of that music. Not servants nor those served; not altars and immolations; but the final, the fulfilled, innocent of pain. Don't help me or serve me, but let me see it once, because I need it. Don't work for my happiness, my brothers—show me yours—show me that it is possible—show me your achievement—and the knowledge will give me courage for mine.",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Ayn Rand",
    "slug": "ayn-rand",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "The Fountainhead",
    "slug": "the-fountainhead",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead"
  },
  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
  "chapter_parent": null,
  "page": 504,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "happiness",
      "slug": "happiness",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness"
    },
    {
      "name": "music",
      "slug": "music",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:09",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "id": "ee6f5d94-de12-4b86-a6cf-fcc6ebca8fb4",
      "slug": "as-poles-of-good",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/as-poles-of-good",
      "text": "\"As poles of good and evil, he was offered two conceptions: egoism and altruism. Egoism was held to mean the sacrifice of others to self. Altruism—the sacrifice of self to others. This tied man irrevocably to other men and left him nothing but a choice of pain: his own pain borne for the sake of others or pain inflicted upon others for the sake of self. […] Man was forced to accept masochism as his ideal—under the threat that sadism was his only alternative.\"",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 739,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "selfishness",
          "slug": "selfishness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness"
        },
        {
          "name": "altruism",
          "slug": "altruism",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/altruism"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10"
    },
    {
      "id": "ccd473ef-b1bf-4e7a-8fe2-2e6a42c79ba5",
      "slug": "every-major-horror",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/every-major-horror",
      "text": "\"Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive.\"",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 741,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "history",
          "slug": "history",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history"
        },
        {
          "name": "altruism",
          "slug": "altruism",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/altruism"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10"
    },
    {
      "id": "c505f87b-9ef1-41ff-8ac4-3fffe567740b",
      "slug": "the-creators-were",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/the-creators-were",
      "text": "\"The creators were not selfless. It is the whole secret of their power—that it was self-sufficient, self-motivated, self-generated. A first cause, a fount of energy, a life force, a Prime Mover. The creator served nothing and no one. He had lived for himself. And only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement.\"",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 737,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "individualism",
          "slug": "individualism",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/individualism"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:10"
    }
  ]
}
