{ "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/why-do-you", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/why-do-you.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/why-do-you.md", "id": "28f1ae34-a0c4-445d-a1d4-3283692469d4", "slug": "why-do-you", "text": "\"Why do you want me to think that this is great architecture?\" He pointed to the picture of the Parthenon. \"That,\" said the Dean, \"is the Parthenon!\" \"So it is.\" \"I haven't the time to waste on silly questions.\" \"All right, then.\" Roark got up, he took a long ruler from the desk, he walked to the picture. \"Shall I tell you what's rotten about it?\" \"It’s the Parthenon!\" said the Dean. \"Yes, God damn it, the Parthenon.\" The ruler struck the glass over the picture. \"Look, \" said Roark. \"The famous flutings on the famous columns—what are they there for? To hide the joints in the wood—when columns were made of wood, only these aren't, they're marble. The triglyphs, what are they? Wood. Wooden beams, the way they had to be laid when people began to build wooden shacks. Your Greeks took marble and they made copies of their wooden structures out of it, because others had done it that way. Then your masters of the Renaissance came along and made copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Now here we are, making copies in steel and concrete of copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Why?\"", "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": 23, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" }, { "name": "architecture", "slug": "architecture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/architecture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_I_(_Peter_Keating_)", "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" } ] }