Intro of "The Fountainhead"

The following lines were picked up from the introduction pages of the world famous AYN RAND's Novel...THE FOUNTAINHEAD. I would not get bored reading them any number of times...Infact I would have read them some thousand times by now...especially the last paragraph shows her attitude and confidence...here we go....

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It is not in the nature of man--nor of any living entity--to start out by giving up, by spitting in one's own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption whose rapidity differes from man to man. Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one's mind; security, of abandoning one's values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed (using the word that two times here is absolutely correct), learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man's nature and of life's potential.

There are a few guideposts to find. The Fountainhead is one of them.

This is one of the cardinal reasons of The Fountainhead's lasting appeal: it is a confirmation of the spirit of youth, proclaiming man's glory, showing how much is possible.

It does not matter that only a few in each generation will grasp and achieve the full reality of man's proper stature--and that the rest will betray it. It is those few that move the world and give life its meaning--and it is those few that I have always sought to address. THE REST ARE NO CONCERN OF MINE; it is not me or The Fountainhead that they will betray; it is their own souls.

AYN RAND
NEW YORK, MAY 1968
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