Borland Delphi’s object-oriented class hierarchy is rooted at TObject – all class types descent from TObject directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly (if you do not declare a base class, it is implicitly TObject). TObject defines about 25 methods but no properties.

TObject is an abstract class – it has virtual functions that must be overridden and thus cannot be directly instantiated.

Unlike all other classes, you will not find the complete source for TObject anywhere in the Delphi VCL. TObject, is in a sense, the only class type that is built into the language. It has been said on occasion that the Delphi complier has carnal knowledge of TObject.

All VCL objects descend from TObject, an abstract class whose methods encapsulate fundamental behavior like construction, destruction, and message handling. TObject is the immediate ancestor of many simple classes.” – Delphi help