When the name of Gail Wynand became a threat in the publishing world, a group of newspaper owners took him aside—and reproached him for what they called his debasement of the public taste. “It is not my function,” said Wynand, “to help people preserve a self-respect they haven’t got. You give them what they profess to like in public. I give them what they really like. Honesty is the best policy, gentlemen, though not quite in the sense you were taught to believe.

From The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand