Mortimer Adler Quotes

60 Sourced Quotes

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

Mortimer Adler
It is only by struggling with difficult books, books over one's head, that anyone learns to read.

Mortimer Adler
You can't be a philosopher and an activist. If you do, you get all mixed up.

Mortimer Adler
Fame does not tarnish as honor does when it is unmerited.

Mortimer Adler
Work that is pure toil, done solely for the sake of the money it earns, is also sheer drudgery because it is stultifying rather than self improving.

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

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

Mortimer Adler
Always keep in mind that an article of faith is not something that the faithful assume. Faith, for those who have it, is the most certain form of knowledge, not a tentative opinion.

Mortimer Adler
For the educational establishment... test scores are treated as indications of the extent to which the required ground covering has been done.... as educationally significant. However, while they may be prognostic of a child's ability to get through school... they do not provide us with an appraisal of the child's progress in the long process of becoming a generally educated human being — the advance made toward a more skillful, thoughtful, and cultivated mind.

Mortimer Adler
A lecture has been well described as the process whereby the notes of the teacher become the notes of the student without passing through the mind of either.

Mortimer Adler