I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself
And Then Make A Change
From the song "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Favourite dialogues from The Fountainhead - Part 1
"Do you mean to tell me that you're thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?"
"Yes"
"My dear fellow, who will let you?"
"That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?"
"Can you see the campus and the town? Do you see how many men are walking and living down there? Well, I dont give a damn what any or all of them think about architecture - or about anything else for that matter. Why should I consider what their grandfathers thought of it?"
"Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail"
"Why is anyone and everyone right - so long as it's not yourself? Why does the number of those others take the place of the truth? Why is truth made a mere matter of arithmetic - and only of addition at that? Why is everything twisted out of all sense to fit everything else?
"Why do you hate me?"
"I dont hate you"
"Well, that's it! Why dont you hate me atleast?"
"Why should I?"
"Just to give me something. I know you cant like me. You cant like anybody. So it would be kinder to acknowledge people's existence by hating them"
"I'm not kind,Peter."
"I cant do it"
"What? Are you actually saying ' Sorry I cant do it'?"
"I havent said 'sorry'"
"What DID you say?
"That I cant do it"
"But really that capitol of Holcombe’s is much worse in all those very things that you blasted us for. Why did you give him such a glowing tribute yesterday? Or did you have to?"
"Because that capitol of his is so awful that to pan it would have been an anticlimax. So I thought it would be amusing to praise it to the sky. It was."
"Is that the way you go about it?"
"That’s the way I go about it. But no one reads my column, except housewives who can never afford to decorate their homes, so it doesn’t matter at all."
"It doesn’t say much. Only ’Howard Roark, Architect.’ But it’s like those mottoes men carved over the entrance of a castle and died for. It’s a challenge in the face of something so vast and so dark, that all the pain on earth--and do you know how much suffering there is on earth?--all the pain comes from that thing you are going to face. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know why it should be unleashed against you. I know only that it will be. And I know that if you carry these words through to the end, it will be a victory, Howard, not just for you, but for something that should win, that moves the world--and never wins acknowledgment. It will vindicate so many who have fallen before you, who have suffered as you will suffer. May God bless you--or whoever it is that is alone to see the best, the highest possible to human hearts. You’re on your way into hell, Howard."
"Will you take me to the theater tonight, Peter? I don’t care what play, any one of them. Call for me after dinner. Tell Father about it. It will please him."
"Though, of course, he should know better than to be pleased, and so should I, but I’ll be delighted just the same, Dominique."
"Why should you know better?"
"Because you have no desire to go to a theater or to see me tonight."
"None whatever. I’m beginning to like you, Peter. Call for me at half past eight."
"You’re too arrogant to boast."
"Is that what I am?"
"Don’t you know what you are?"
"No. Not as far as you’re seeing me, or anyone else."
"The beauty of the human body is that it hasn’t a single muscle which doesn’t serve its purpose; that there’s not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."
"You haven’t worked for a year. And you won’t. Who’ll ever give you work? You might have a few hundreds left--and then it’s the end."
"That’s wrong, Peter. I have fourteen dollars left, and fifty-seven cents."
"You don’t ask what he’d do if he didn’t want to be an architect."
"No, you ask what he’d do if he couldn’t be an architect."
"He’d walk over corpses. Any and all of them. All of us. But he’d be an architect."
"Oh, I adore your Enright House! Of course, I can’t say that it represents my own esthetic convictions, but people of culture must keep their minds open to anything, I mean, to include any viewpoint in creative art, we must be broad-minded above all, don’t you think so?"
"I don’t know, I’ve never been broad-minded."
"Roark, what do you think of Ellsworth Toohey?"
"Good God, why should anyone think of Ellsworth Toohey?"
"Yes"
"My dear fellow, who will let you?"
"That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?"
"Can you see the campus and the town? Do you see how many men are walking and living down there? Well, I dont give a damn what any or all of them think about architecture - or about anything else for that matter. Why should I consider what their grandfathers thought of it?"
"Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail"
"Why is anyone and everyone right - so long as it's not yourself? Why does the number of those others take the place of the truth? Why is truth made a mere matter of arithmetic - and only of addition at that? Why is everything twisted out of all sense to fit everything else?
"Why do you hate me?"
"I dont hate you"
"Well, that's it! Why dont you hate me atleast?"
"Why should I?"
"Just to give me something. I know you cant like me. You cant like anybody. So it would be kinder to acknowledge people's existence by hating them"
"I'm not kind,Peter."
"I cant do it"
"What? Are you actually saying ' Sorry I cant do it'?"
"I havent said 'sorry'"
"What DID you say?
"That I cant do it"
"But really that capitol of Holcombe’s is much worse in all those very things that you blasted us for. Why did you give him such a glowing tribute yesterday? Or did you have to?"
"Because that capitol of his is so awful that to pan it would have been an anticlimax. So I thought it would be amusing to praise it to the sky. It was."
"Is that the way you go about it?"
"That’s the way I go about it. But no one reads my column, except housewives who can never afford to decorate their homes, so it doesn’t matter at all."
"It doesn’t say much. Only ’Howard Roark, Architect.’ But it’s like those mottoes men carved over the entrance of a castle and died for. It’s a challenge in the face of something so vast and so dark, that all the pain on earth--and do you know how much suffering there is on earth?--all the pain comes from that thing you are going to face. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know why it should be unleashed against you. I know only that it will be. And I know that if you carry these words through to the end, it will be a victory, Howard, not just for you, but for something that should win, that moves the world--and never wins acknowledgment. It will vindicate so many who have fallen before you, who have suffered as you will suffer. May God bless you--or whoever it is that is alone to see the best, the highest possible to human hearts. You’re on your way into hell, Howard."
"Will you take me to the theater tonight, Peter? I don’t care what play, any one of them. Call for me after dinner. Tell Father about it. It will please him."
"Though, of course, he should know better than to be pleased, and so should I, but I’ll be delighted just the same, Dominique."
"Why should you know better?"
"Because you have no desire to go to a theater or to see me tonight."
"None whatever. I’m beginning to like you, Peter. Call for me at half past eight."
"You’re too arrogant to boast."
"Is that what I am?"
"Don’t you know what you are?"
"No. Not as far as you’re seeing me, or anyone else."
"The beauty of the human body is that it hasn’t a single muscle which doesn’t serve its purpose; that there’s not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."
"You haven’t worked for a year. And you won’t. Who’ll ever give you work? You might have a few hundreds left--and then it’s the end."
"That’s wrong, Peter. I have fourteen dollars left, and fifty-seven cents."
"You don’t ask what he’d do if he didn’t want to be an architect."
"No, you ask what he’d do if he couldn’t be an architect."
"He’d walk over corpses. Any and all of them. All of us. But he’d be an architect."
"Oh, I adore your Enright House! Of course, I can’t say that it represents my own esthetic convictions, but people of culture must keep their minds open to anything, I mean, to include any viewpoint in creative art, we must be broad-minded above all, don’t you think so?"
"I don’t know, I’ve never been broad-minded."
"Roark, what do you think of Ellsworth Toohey?"
"Good God, why should anyone think of Ellsworth Toohey?"
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