Quotes from Mortimer J. Adler

Now there is no other way of forming a habit of operation than by operating.

one learns to do by doing.

The first stage of elementary reading—reading readiness—corresponds to pre-school and kindergarten experiences.

But it may be seriously questioned whether the advent of modern communications media has much enhanced our understanding of the world

The halls of academia are like the halls of a madhouse at midnight.

Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgement until you can say "I understand

Many readers fear that it would be disloyal to their commitment to stand apart and impersonally question what they are reading. Yet this is necessary whenever you read analytically.

The question, is it true? can be asked of anything we read. It is applicable to every kind of writing, in one or another sense of truth -- mathematical, scientific, philosophical, historial and poetical. No higher commendation can be given any work of the human mind than to praise it for the measure of truth it has achieved; by the same token, to criticize it adversely for its failure in this respect is to treat it with the seriousness that a serious work deserves.

From your point of view as a reader, therefore, the most important words are those that give you trouble.

There is no inactive learning, just as there is no inactive reading.

It is wasteful to read a book slowly that deserves only a fast reading; speed reading skills can help you solve that problem.

Theoretical books teach you that something is the case. Practical books teach you how to do something you want to do or think you should do.

A good life is made by accumulating in the course of a lifetime everything that is really good and by wanting nothing that impedes or frustrates this effort.

a arte de ler é a técnica de apanhar qualquer tipo de comunicação.

If you read for understanding, reading for information will usually take care of itself.

We must become a nation of truly competent readers, recognizing all that the word competent implies.

Having a method without materials to which it can be applied is as useless as having the materials with no method to apply to them.

Anyone who fails to consult the explanatory notes and the list of abbreviations at the beginning of a dictionary has only himself to blame if he is not able to use it well.

That they often do not even reach it is apparent to many parents and to most educators. The reasons for the failure are many, ranging all the way from various kinds of deprivations in the home environment—economic, social, and/or intellectual (including parental illiteracy)—to personal problems of all kinds (including total revolt against "the system").

Analytical reading is thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading—the best reading you can do.

STEP 5 IN SYNTOPICAL READING: ANALYZING THE DISCUSSION

Analytical reading is preeminently for the sake of understanding

At various times in the history of education, a distinction has been made between learning through instruction and learning through discovery.

Informar-se é simplesmente saber que algo é um fato. Esclarecer-se é saber, além de que algo é um fato, do que se trata esse fato: por que ele é assim, quais as conexões que possui com outros fatos, em quais aspectos são iguais, em quais aspectos são diferentes etc.