Mortimer J. Adler Quotes
Mortimer J. Adler Quotes
... a practical problem can only be solved by action itself. When your practical problem is how to earn a living, a book on how to make friends and influence people cannot solve it, though it may suggest things to do. Nothing short of the doing solves the problem. It is solved only by earning a living.
4183 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?
3855 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.
3065 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.
4600 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.
2968 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.
3522 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.
3160 If your friend wishes to read your 'Plutarch's Lives,' 'Shakespeare,' or 'The Federalist Papers,' tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat - but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.
1532 Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
4993 Books are absent teachers.
1552 In short, we can only learn from our "betters".
1044 If a book is easy and fits nicely into all your language conventions and thought forms, then you probably will not grow much from reading it. It may be entertaining, but not enlarging to your understanding. It’s the hard books that count. Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.
3079 What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business.
1357 The beauty of any work of art is related to the pleasure it gives us when we know it well.
1635 True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.
4673 Mortimer J. Adler At Amazon