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But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find
by teekert 9y ago
But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.
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Listen to what is being preached today. Look at everyone around us. You've wondered why they suffer, why they seek happiness and never find it. If any man stopped and asked himself whether he's ever held a truly personal desire, he'd find the answer. He'd see that all his wishes, his efforts, his dreams, his ambitions are motivated by other men. He's not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander's delusion - prestige. A stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no joy in the struggle and no joy when he has succeeded. He can't say about a single thing: 'This is what I wanted because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me'. Then he wonders why he's unhappy.
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Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.
- todd8 9y agoWritten in 1943! This really resonates with me. One reason I like working in software is that many of the limitations of other engineering disciplines (the strength of materials, the weight of concrete, etc) don’t limit our creations. Our limits are our own ability to manage complexity and the limits of what we can dream to do.
- teekert 9y agoMe too! But more on a personal level. It was the first time I got a really good description of how thinking of yourself and taking your own interests seriously and putting them on top (of course respecting that other have that right as well) is not only ethical but can also make you and the people you love more happy. I really tended to be overly social, putting others needs over mine, and it made things very difficult in relationships. When you always do what she wants, somehow you start to resent it and then you realize it is you that should invest in finding out what you truly like. Otherwise, what is your love worth if it is not from the most selfish of reasons "I love you because I deeply want to be with you, I'm not doing it for you." To say ‘I love you’ one must first know how to say the ‘I.’ Ok, one more that is nice from our software point of view then and matches your comment: --- "Look, " said Roark. "The famous flutings on the 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?"
- dsr_ 9y agoThey all stood on the shoulders of giants, who were themselves part of huge and ancient communities of people working together.
- teekert 9y agoSometimes, sure. But sometimes it takes years of effort and loneliness, that is at least where the "and yet it moves" quote comes from. I my mind at least, Galilei was alone, with unpopular, dangerous views, against a huge number of people with another opinion. It is what the piece is about, it is what the Fountainhead is about.
- hprotagonist 9y ago"solo science gods make great advances" is not at all what "E Pur Si Muove" means. It means that the material world is what it is, and that reality is not modulated by human decree.
- teekert 9y agoTo me, and I'm entitled to my own feeling about "E Pur Si Muove" ;), it also stands for a strong believe in one's own observations, a strong will that is not swayed by the masses and the loneliness that comes with it. The sentence "E Pur Si Muove" may provide people with the strength needed to voice their unconventional theories.