{
  "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/i-want-a-good",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/i-want-a-good.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/i-want-a-good.md",
  "id": "4c619df9-dc0e-4974-be07-5a00b1048985",
  "slug": "i-want-a-good",
  "text": "\"I want a good hotel, and I have certain standards of what is good, and they're my own, and you're the one who can give me what I want. And when I fight for you, I’m doing—on my side of it—just what you do when you design a building. Do you think integrity is the monopoly of the artist? And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability not to pick a watch out of your neighbor’s pocket? No, it's not as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say ninety-five percent of humanity were honest, upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren't. Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea. That presupposes the ability to think. Thinking is something one doesn't borrow or pawn. […] Don't worry. They're all against me. But I have one advantage: they don't know what they want. I do.\"",
  "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": 333,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "integrity",
      "slug": "integrity",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/integrity"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_II_(_Ellsworth_M._Toohey_)",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:08",
  "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"
    }
  ]
}