The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead

by

Ayn Rand

Ellsworth Toohey Character Analysis

Ellsworth Toohey is the villain of The Fountainhead. He is extremely intelligent and has a deep understanding of human nature, and he uses this to exploit people and gain power over them. While Toohey is physically diminutive and seems genial at first, he has a way with words and is described as having “the voice of a giant” which he can use to “prove anything.” Unlike Roark, who ruffles feathers wherever he goes, Toohey has popular appeal and charms his way into various social circles. Because he stands with unions and supports workers’ rights, the working class loves him, and since he is witty and influential in the art world, he is welcomed into drawing rooms and fancy parties. Toohey’s message to the world is the glorification of the collective and the erasure of the individual. He makes a splash with his first book on architecture, called Sermons in Stone, in which he praises architecture as an art form that is “anonymous.” This lands him a contract at a popular newspaper, the Banner, to write a daily column called “One Small Voice,” which Toohey uses to disseminate his socialist opinions and attack those who do not fit into his plans, like Howard Roark. Toohey is a canny villain who has no illusions about the nature of his power. He admits to Peter Keating that while he preaches selflessness in order to gain power over people, he understands that he is the most selfless of them all. By building his identity on the power he holds over others, he has no self. Yet, he is ready to pay this price for power. While he professes to love people by preaching equality and selflessness, he in fact detests humanity and wants to enslave it by robbing people of their individuality. He has no respect for human beings, and unlike Roark, who admires human heroism, Toohey sees humanity as base and servile. Through Toohey’s character, Ayn Rand asserts that religious and socialist ideas of equality and service hamper the human potential for greatness.

Ellsworth Toohey Quotes in The Fountainhead

The The Fountainhead quotes below are all either spoken by Ellsworth Toohey or refer to Ellsworth Toohey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Individualism Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Chapter 9 Quotes

Then came the voice.

“My friends,” it said, simply and solemnly. “My brothers,” it added softly, involuntarily, both full of emotion and smiling apologetically at the emotion. […]

It was not a voice, it was a miracle. It unrolled as a velvet banner. […] It was the voice of a giant.

Keating stood, his mouth open. He did not hear what the voice was saying. He heard the beauty of the sounds without meaning. He felt no need to know the meaning; he could accept anything, he would be led blindly anywhere. […]

Keating looked at Catherine. There was no Catherine; there was only […] a nameless thing in which she was being swallowed.

“Let’s get out of here,” he whispered. His voice was savage. He was afraid.

Related Characters: Ellsworth Toohey (speaker), Peter Keating (speaker), Catherine Halsey
Related Symbols: Crowds and Groups
Page Number: 109
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Chapter 12 Quotes

“What you’re thinking is much worse than the truth. I don’t believe it matters to me—that they’re going to destroy it. Maybe it hurts so much that I don’t even know I’m hurt. But I don’t think so. If you want to carry it for my sake, don’t carry more than I do. I’m not capable of suffering completely. I never have. It goes only down to a certain point and then it stops. As long as there is that untouched point, it’s not really pain. You mustn’t look like that.”

“Where does it stop?”

“Where I can think of nothing and feel nothing except that I designed that temple. I built it. Nothing else can seem very important.”

Related Characters: Howard Roark (speaker), Dominique Francon (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey, Hopton Stoddard
Related Symbols: Crowds and Groups
Page Number: 344
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Chapter 13 Quotes

“Don’t you see what it is that I must understand? Why is it that I set out honestly to do what I thought was right and it’s making me rotten? I think it’s probably because I’m vicious by nature and incapable of leading a good life. That seems to be the only explanation. But…but sometimes I think it doesn’t make sense that a human being is completely sincere in good will and yet the good is not for him to achieve. I can’t be as rotten as that. But…but I’ve given up everything, I have no selfish desire left. I have nothing of my own—and I’m miserable. And so are the other women like me. And I don’t know a single selfless person in the world who’s happy—except you.”

Related Characters: Catherine Halsey (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey
Page Number: 363-364
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 6 Quotes

“What achievement is there for a critic in praising a good play? None whatever. The critic is then nothing but a kind of glorified messenger boy between author and public. […] I’m sick of it. I have a right to wish to impress my own personality upon people. Otherwise, I shall become frustrated—and I do not believe in frustration. But if a critic is able to put over a perfectly worthless play—ah, you do perceive the difference!”

Related Characters: Jules Fougler (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey, Ike
Related Symbols: Crowds and Groups
Page Number: 469
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 9 Quotes

“Do you know what you’re actually in love with? Integrity. The impossible. […] like a work of art. That’s the only field where it can be found—art. But you want it in the flesh. […] Well, you see, I’ve never had any integrity. […] I hate the conception of it. […] I’m perfectly indifferent to slugs like Ellsworth Toohey or my friend Alvah, and quite willing to leave them in peace. But just let me see a man of slightly higher dimension—and I’ve got to make a sort of Toohey out of him. […]”

“Why?”

[…]

“Power, Dominique. The only thing I ever wanted. To know that there’s not a man living whom I can’t force to do—anything. Anything I choose. The man I couldn’t break would destroy me. But I’ve spent years finding out how safe I am.”

Related Characters: Dominique Francon (speaker), Gail Wynand (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey, Alvah Scarret
Page Number: 496-497
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 14 Quotes

“Make man feel small. Make him feel guilty. Kill his aspiration and his integrity. […] Preach selflessness. Tell man that he must live for others. Tell men that altruism is the ideal. […] Man realizes that he is incapable of what he’s accepted as the noblest virtue—and it gives him a sense of guilt, of sin, of his own basic unworthiness. […] His soul gives up his self-respect. You’ve got him. He’ll obey. […] Kill man’s sense of values. Kill his capacity to recognize greatness or to achieve it. Great men can’t be ruled. We don’t want any great men.”

Related Characters: Ellsworth Toohey (speaker), Howard Roark, Peter Keating
Page Number: 635
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ellsworth Toohey Quotes in The Fountainhead

The The Fountainhead quotes below are all either spoken by Ellsworth Toohey or refer to Ellsworth Toohey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Individualism Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Chapter 9 Quotes

Then came the voice.

“My friends,” it said, simply and solemnly. “My brothers,” it added softly, involuntarily, both full of emotion and smiling apologetically at the emotion. […]

It was not a voice, it was a miracle. It unrolled as a velvet banner. […] It was the voice of a giant.

Keating stood, his mouth open. He did not hear what the voice was saying. He heard the beauty of the sounds without meaning. He felt no need to know the meaning; he could accept anything, he would be led blindly anywhere. […]

Keating looked at Catherine. There was no Catherine; there was only […] a nameless thing in which she was being swallowed.

“Let’s get out of here,” he whispered. His voice was savage. He was afraid.

Related Characters: Ellsworth Toohey (speaker), Peter Keating (speaker), Catherine Halsey
Related Symbols: Crowds and Groups
Page Number: 109
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Chapter 12 Quotes

“What you’re thinking is much worse than the truth. I don’t believe it matters to me—that they’re going to destroy it. Maybe it hurts so much that I don’t even know I’m hurt. But I don’t think so. If you want to carry it for my sake, don’t carry more than I do. I’m not capable of suffering completely. I never have. It goes only down to a certain point and then it stops. As long as there is that untouched point, it’s not really pain. You mustn’t look like that.”

“Where does it stop?”

“Where I can think of nothing and feel nothing except that I designed that temple. I built it. Nothing else can seem very important.”

Related Characters: Howard Roark (speaker), Dominique Francon (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey, Hopton Stoddard
Related Symbols: Crowds and Groups
Page Number: 344
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Chapter 13 Quotes

“Don’t you see what it is that I must understand? Why is it that I set out honestly to do what I thought was right and it’s making me rotten? I think it’s probably because I’m vicious by nature and incapable of leading a good life. That seems to be the only explanation. But…but sometimes I think it doesn’t make sense that a human being is completely sincere in good will and yet the good is not for him to achieve. I can’t be as rotten as that. But…but I’ve given up everything, I have no selfish desire left. I have nothing of my own—and I’m miserable. And so are the other women like me. And I don’t know a single selfless person in the world who’s happy—except you.”

Related Characters: Catherine Halsey (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey
Page Number: 363-364
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 6 Quotes

“What achievement is there for a critic in praising a good play? None whatever. The critic is then nothing but a kind of glorified messenger boy between author and public. […] I’m sick of it. I have a right to wish to impress my own personality upon people. Otherwise, I shall become frustrated—and I do not believe in frustration. But if a critic is able to put over a perfectly worthless play—ah, you do perceive the difference!”

Related Characters: Jules Fougler (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey, Ike
Related Symbols: Crowds and Groups
Page Number: 469
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Chapter 9 Quotes

“Do you know what you’re actually in love with? Integrity. The impossible. […] like a work of art. That’s the only field where it can be found—art. But you want it in the flesh. […] Well, you see, I’ve never had any integrity. […] I hate the conception of it. […] I’m perfectly indifferent to slugs like Ellsworth Toohey or my friend Alvah, and quite willing to leave them in peace. But just let me see a man of slightly higher dimension—and I’ve got to make a sort of Toohey out of him. […]”

“Why?”

[…]

“Power, Dominique. The only thing I ever wanted. To know that there’s not a man living whom I can’t force to do—anything. Anything I choose. The man I couldn’t break would destroy me. But I’ve spent years finding out how safe I am.”

Related Characters: Dominique Francon (speaker), Gail Wynand (speaker), Ellsworth Toohey, Alvah Scarret
Page Number: 496-497
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Chapter 14 Quotes

“Make man feel small. Make him feel guilty. Kill his aspiration and his integrity. […] Preach selflessness. Tell man that he must live for others. Tell men that altruism is the ideal. […] Man realizes that he is incapable of what he’s accepted as the noblest virtue—and it gives him a sense of guilt, of sin, of his own basic unworthiness. […] His soul gives up his self-respect. You’ve got him. He’ll obey. […] Kill man’s sense of values. Kill his capacity to recognize greatness or to achieve it. Great men can’t be ruled. We don’t want any great men.”

Related Characters: Ellsworth Toohey (speaker), Howard Roark, Peter Keating
Page Number: 635
Explanation and Analysis: