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 Adler More Quotes by Mortimer Adler More Quotes From Mortimer Adler All genuine learning is active, not passive. It involves the use of the mind, not just the memory. It is a process of discovery, in which the student is the main agent, not the teacher. Mortimer Adler discoveryteachermemories More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question. Mortimer Adler affirmationdenialaction Not to engage in this pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men. Mortimer Adler moving-onlive-lifemotivational I suspect that most of the individuals who have religious faith are content with blind faith. They feel no obligation to understand what they believe. They may even wish not to have their beliefs disturbed by thought. Mortimer Adler intellectualreligiousbelieve To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent. Mortimer Adler disagreeagreeunderstanding True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline. Mortimer Adler disciplinefreedommind 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 Adler educationmotivationalbook 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. Mortimer Adler informationbookworld 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 Adler drugmindgiving 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 Adler errorsjudgingschool If you ask a living teacher a question, he will probably answer you. If you are puzzled by what he says, you can save yourself the trouble of thinking by asking him what he means. If, however, you ask a book a question, you must answer it yourself. In this respect a book is like nature or the world. When you question it, it answers you only to the extent that you do the work of thinking an analysis yourself. Mortimer Adler teachermeanbook The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live. Mortimer Adler teachingpositiveinspirational Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely. Mortimer Adler feeling-alonebeing-alonelonely The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession of every kind of good, by the enjoyment of every type of satisfaction. Mortimer Adler kindsatisfactionends You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think. Mortimer Adler timemotivationalinspirational Education is the sum total of one's experience, and the purpose of higher education is to widen our experiences beyond the circumscribed existence or our own daily lives. Mortimer Adler daily-lifepurposeeducation 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 Adler meanchildrenthinking Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature. Mortimer Adler wisdomlifebook The truly great books are the few books that are over everybody's head all of the time. Mortimer Adler great-bookbook The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read. Mortimer Adler readerbookway
