Famous Mortimer J Adler Quotes

  • Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it. – Mortimer J Adler

    Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it.– Mortimer J Adler

  • What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business. – Mortimer J Adler

    What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business.– Mortimer J Adler

  • The mind can atrophy, like the muscles, if it is not used. – Mortimer J Adler

    The mind can atrophy, like the muscles, if it is not used.– Mortimer J Adler

  • The reader who fails to ponder, or at least mark, the words he does not understand is headed for disaster. – Mortimer J Adler

    The reader who fails to ponder, or at least mark, the words he does not understand is headed for disaster.– Mortimer J Adler

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

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

  • Don’t try to resist the effect that a work of imaginative literature has on you. – Mortimer J Adler

    Don’t try to resist the effect that a work of imaginative literature has on you.– Mortimer J Adler

  • The student can read as fast as his mind will let him, not as slow as his eyes make him. – Mortimer J Adler

    The student can read as fast as his mind will let him, not as slow as his eyes make him.– Mortimer J Adler

  • Books are absent teachers. – Mortimer J Adler

    Books are absent teachers.– Mortimer J Adler

  • Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. – Mortimer J Adler

    Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.– Mortimer J Adler

  • True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline. – Mortimer J Adler

    True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.– Mortimer J Adler