Mortimer Adler Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Teacher, Memories, Discovery

  Mortimer J. Adler (1998). “Paideia Proposal”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

  56 Copy quote

• Ultimately there can be no disagreement between history, science, philosophy, and theology. Where there is disagreement, there is either ignorance or error.

  Mortimer Adler

  Philosophy, Ignorance, Science

  6 Copy quote

• More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question.

  Mortimer Adler

  Denial, Action, Affirmation

  50 Copy quote

• Philosophy is everybody's business.

  Mortimer Adler

  Philosophy, Philosopher

  Mortimer Adler (2000). “How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization”, p.21, Open Court

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Motivational, Education, Book

  "Book of Humorous Quotations". Book by Connie Robertson, 1998.

  40 Copy quote

• 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

  Religious, Believe, Intellectual

  "A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror: Further Autobiographical Reflections of a Philosopher at Large".

  44 Copy quote

• To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.

  Mortimer Adler

  Understanding, Agree, Disagree

  Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren (2014). “How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading”, p.141, Simon and Schuster

  39 Copy quote

• 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

  Book, World, Information

  "How to Read a Book".

  40 Copy quote

• True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.

  Mortimer Adler

  Freedom, Discipline, Mind

  40 Copy quote

• Books are absent teachers.

  Mortimer Adler

  Teacher, Book, Absent

  10 Copy quote

• Not to engage in this pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men.

  Mortimer Adler

  Motivational, Moving On, Live Life

  "Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind".

  94 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspirational, Motivational, Time

  26 Copy quote

• 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

  School, Errors, Judging

  34 Copy quote

• In Aristotelian terms, the good leader must have ethos, pathos and logos. The ethos is his moral character, the source of his ability to persuade. The pathos is his ability to touch feelings to move people emotionally. The logos is his ability to give solid reasons for an action, to move people intellectually.

  Mortimer Adler

  Moving, Character, Ethos

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Giving, Drug, Mind

  12 Copy quote

• Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

  Mortimer Adler

  Inspirational, Life, Reading

  "How To Read A Book". Book by Mortimer J. Adler, 1940.

  14 Copy quote

• Sometimes it feels like I'm thinking against the wind.

  Mortimer Adler

  Thinking, Wind, Sometimes

  7 Copy quote

• The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.

  Mortimer Adler

  Wisdom, Philosophy, Thinking

  Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren (2014). “How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading”, p.49, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

• My chief reason for choosing Christianity was because the mysteries were incomprehensible. What's the point of revelation if we could figure it out ourselves? If it were wholly comprehensible, then it would just be another philosophy.

  Mortimer Adler

  Philosophy, Mystery, Christianity

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Education, Purpose, Daily Life

  17 Copy quote

• 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 Adler

  Wisdom, Ignorance, Thinking

  6 Copy quote

• The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.

  Mortimer Adler

  Inspirational, Positive, Teaching

  "The Leisure Alternatives Catalog: Food for Mind & Body". Book by Joseph Allen, 1979.

  28 Copy quote

• The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea.

  Mortimer Adler

  Book, Ideas, Telephones

  Mortimer Jerome Adler, Geraldine Van Doren (1988). “Reforming education: the opening of the American mind”, Macmillan Pub Co

  6 Copy quote

• The best protection against propaganda of any sort is the recognition of it for what it is. Only hidden and undetected oratory is really insidious. What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business. Propaganda taken in that way is like a drug you do not know you are swallowing. The effect is mysterious; you do not know afterwards why you feel or think the way you do.

  Mortimer Adler

  Taken, Heart, Thinking

  Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren (2014). “How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading”, p.194, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Teacher, Book, Mean

  Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren (2014). “How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

  20 Copy quote

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