quotes by Mortimer J. Adler

"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you."
— Mortimer J. Adler

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life."
— Mortimer J. Adler

"....a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable - books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

""The truly great books are the few books that are over everybody's head all of the time.""
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Speak How to Listen)

"Is it too much to expect from the schools that they train their students not only to interpret but to criticize; that is, to discriminate what is sound from error and falsehood, to suspend judgement if they are not convinced, or to judge with reason if they agree or disagree?"
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life."
— Mortimer J. Adler

"The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth. The great philosophers have always been able to clear away the complexities and see simple distinctions - simple once they are stated, vastly difficult before. If we are to follow them we too must be childishly simple in our questions - and maturely wise in our replies."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"A lecture has been well described as the process whereby the notes of the teacher become the notes of the student without passing through the mind of either."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"...true freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And we we cease to grow, we begin to die."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"The ability to retain a child's view of the world with at the same time a mature understanding of what it means to retain it, is extremely rare - and a person who has these qualities is likely to be able to contribute something really important to our thinking."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life."
— Mortimer J. Adler

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Wisdom is fortified, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations. Ignorance does not make a fool as surely as self-deception."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"Habits are formed by the repetition of particular acts. They are strengthened by an increase in the number of repeated acts. Habits are also weakened or broken, and contrary habits are formed by the repetition of contrary acts."
— Mortimer J. Adler

"All books will become light in proportion as you find light in them."
— Mortimer J. Adler

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. "
— Mortimer J. Adler

"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you."
— Mortimer J. Adler

"The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth."
— Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book)

"The tragedy of being both rational and animal seems to consist in having to choose between duty and desire rather than in making any particular choice"
— Mortimer J. Adler

"If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you don't already possess"
— Mortimer J. Adler

"Reading is a basic toll in the living of a good life."
— Mortimer J. Adler