Ellsworth M Toohey Quotes & Sayings

It's such a waste to be subtle and vicious with people who don't even know that you're being subtle and vicious — Ayn Rand

You know, Ellsworth,' Keating said, leaning forward, happy in an uneasy kind of way, 'I'd rather talk to you than do anything else, anything at all. I had so many places to go tonight
and I'm so much happier sitting here with you. Sometimes I wonder how I'd ever go on without you.'
'That,' said Toohey, 'is as it should be. Or else what are friends for? — Ayn Rand

All the giants of the spirit whom I've broken. I don't think anybody ever realized how much I enjoyed doing it. It's a kind of lust. 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 a slightly higher dimension - and I've got to make a sort of Toohey out of him. I've got to. It's like a sex urge. — Ayn Rand

The basic trouble with the modern world ... is the intellectual fallacy that freedom and compulsion are opposites. To solve the gigantic problems crushing the world today, we must clarify our mental confusion. We must acquire a philosophical perspective. In essence, freedom and compulsion are one. Let me give you a simple illustration. Traffic lights restrain your freedom to cross a street whenever you wish. But this restraint gives you the freedom from being run over by a truck. If you were assigned to a job and prohibited from leaving it, it would restrain the freedom of your career. But it would give you freedom from the fear of unemployment. Whenever a new compulsion is forced upon us, we automatically gain a new freedom. The two are inseparable. Only by accepting total compulsion can we achieve total freedom. — Ayn Rand