# Quote — Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

> "What you feel in the presence of a thing you admire is just one word—'Yes.' The affirmation, the acceptance, the sign of admittance. And that 'Yes' is more than an answer to one thing, it's a kind of 'Amen' to life, to the earth that holds this thing, to the thought that created it, to yourself for being able to see it. But the ability to say 'Yes' or 'No' is the essence of all ownership. It's your ownership of your own ego. Your soul, if you wish. Your soul has a single basic function—the act of valuing. 'Yes' or 'No,' 'I wish' or 'I do not wish.' You can't say 'Yes' without saying 'I.' There's no affirmation without the one who affirms. In this sense, everything to which you grant your love is yours.
>
> [...]
>
> "Howard, that 'Yes'—once granted, can it be withdrawn?"
>
> "Never."

- Author: [Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md)
- Book: [The Fountainhead](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead.md)
- Page: 539
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/what-you-feel

## More from this book

> "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."

p. 739 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/as-poles-of-good.md)

> The first movement of Roark's head was not to look at the city in the window, at the judge or at Dominique. He looked at Wynand. Wynand turned sharply and walked out. He was the first man to leave the courtroom.

p. 744 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/the-first-movement.md)

> The line of the ocean cut the sky. The ocean mounted as the city descended. She passed the pinnacles of bank buildings. She passed the crowns of courthouses. She rose above the spires of churches.
>
> Then there was only the ocean and the sky and the figure of Howard Roark.

p. 754 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/the-line-of-the.md)