Quotes from Mortimer Adler

The philosopher ought never to try to avoid the duty of making up his mind.

There is no more irritating fellow than the man who tries to settle an argument about communism, or justice, or liberty, by quoting from Webster.

Men value things in three ways: as useful, as pleasant or sources of pleasure, and as excellent, or as intrinsically admirable or honorable.

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.

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

Philosophy is everybody's business.

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.

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

The love which moves the world, according to common Christian belief, is God's love and the love of God.

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.

Angels are not merely forms of extraterrestrial intelligence. They are forms of extra-cosmic intelligence.

Angels are able to know and understand better than the human intellect can, precisely because such knowledge and understanding comes to them by way of ideas infused in them by God.

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

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.

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.

All genuine learning is active, not passive.

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

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.

The teacher's role in discussion is to keep it going along fruitful lines - be moderating, guiding, correcting and arguing like one more students.

If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you do not already possess.

Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That's why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.

Love without conversation is impossible.

The truly great books are the few books that are over everybody's head all of the time.

When we ask for love, we don't ask others to be fair to us-but rather to care for us, to be considerate of us. There is a world of difference here between demanding justice... and begging or pleading for love.