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Sin Is Not Only Manifested In Certain Acts That Are Forbidden By Divine Command. Sin Also Appears In Attitudes And Dispositions And Feelings. Lust And Hate Are Sins As Well As Adultery And Murder. And, In The Traditional Christian View, Despair And Chronic Boredom - Unaccompanied By Any Vicious Act - Are Serious Sins. They Are Expressions Of Man's Separation From God, As The Ultimate Good, Meaning, And End Of Human Existence.

-Mortimer Adler

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Sin Is Not Only

Mortimer Adler

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Sin Is Not Only Manifested In Certain Acts That Are Forbidden By Divine Command. Sin Also Appears In Attitudes And Dispositions And Feelings. Lust And Hate Are Sins As Well As Adultery And Murder. And, In The Traditional Christian View, Despair And Chronic Boredom - Unaccompanied By Any Vicious Act - Are Serious Sins. They Are Expressions Of Man's Separation From God, As The Ultimate Good, Meaning, And End Of Human Existence.

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Not To Engage In This Pursuit Of Ideas Is To Live Like Ants Instead Of Like Men.

Wonder Is The Beginning Of Wisdom In Learning From Books As Well As From Nature.

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.

Erotic Or Sexual Love Can Truly Be Love If It Is Not Selfishly Sexual Or Lustful.

More Consequences For Thought And Action Follow The Affirmation Or Denial Of God Than From Answering Any Other Basic Question.

If We Consider Men And Women Generally, And Apart From Their Professions Or Occupations, There Is Only One Situation I Can Think Of In Which They Almost Pull Themselves Up By Their Bootstraps, Making An Effort To Read Better Than They Usually Do. When They Are In Love And Are Reading A Love Letter, They Read For All They Are Worth.

The Truly Great Books Are The Few Books That Are Over Everybody's Head All Of The Time.

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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.

Political Democracy Cannot Flourish Under All Economic Conditions. Democracy Requires An Economic System Which Supports The Political Ideals Of Liberty And Equality For All. Men Cannot Exercise Freedom In The Political Sphere When They Are Deprived Of It In The Economic Sphere.

... 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.

The Purpose Of Learning Is Growth, And Our Minds, Unlike Our Bodies, Can Continue Growing As We Continue To Live.

One Of The Aims Of Sexual Union Is Procreation - The Creation By Reproduction Of An Image Of Itself, Of The Union.

Reading Is A Basic Tool In The Living Of A Good Life.

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.

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.

The Person Who Says He Knows What He Thinks But Cannot Express It Usually Does Not Know What He Thinks.

First, An Angel Is Spiritually Present At Whatever Place In Physical Space Happens To Be Occupied By The Body On Which It Acts. It Can Be Present At That Place Without Leaving Heaven Which Is Its Spiritual Residence.

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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?

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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.

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To Agree Without Understanding Is Inane. To Disagree Without Understanding Is Impudent.

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I Find The Selectivity Of Erotic Love - The Choice Of This Man Or This Woman - Much More Intelligible If Liking The Person Is The Origin Of Sexual Interest, Rather Than The Other Way.

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If You Are Reading In Order To Become A Better Reader, You Cannot Read Just Any Book Or Article. You Will Not Improve As A Reader If All You Read Are Books That Are Well Within Your Capacity. You Must Tackle Books That Are Beyond You, Or, As We Have Said, Books That Are Over Your Head. Only Books Of That Sort Will Make You Stretch Your Mind. And Unless You Stretch, You Will Not Learn.

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.

If Your Friend Wishes To Read Your 'plutarch's Lives,' 'shakespeare,' Or 'the Federalist Papers,' Tell Him Gently But Firmly, To Buy A Copy. You Will Lend Him Your Car Or Your Coat - But Your Books Are As Much A Part Of You As Your Head Or Your Heart.

The Materialist Assumption That Spiritual Substances Do Not Exist Is As Much An Act Of Faith As The Religious Belief In The Reality Of Angels.

Theories Of Love Are Found In The Works Of Scientists, Philosophers, And Theologians.

Philosophy Is Everybody's Business.

The Complexities Of Adult Life Get In The Way Of The Truth.

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.

Ask Others About Themselves, At The Same Time, Be On Guard Not To Talk Too Much About Yourself.

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.

There Is A Strange Fact About The Human Mind, A Fact That Differentiates The Mind Sharply From The Body. The Body Is Limited In Ways That The Mind Is Not. One Sign Of This Is That The Body Does Not Continue Indefinitely To Grow In Strength And Develop In Skill And Grace. By The Time Most People Are Thirty Years Old, Their Bodies Are As Good As They Will Ever Be; In Fact, Many Persons' Bodies Have Begun To Deteriorate By That Time. But There Is No Limit To The Amount Of Growth And Development That The Mind Can Sustain. The Mind Does Not Stop Growing At Any Particular Age.

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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.

A Good Book Deserves An Active Reading. The Activity Of Reading Does Not Stop With The Work Of Understanding What A Book Says. It Must Be Completed By The Work Of Criticism, The Work Of Judging. The Undemanding Reader Fails To Satisfy This Requirement, Probably Even More Than He Fails To Analyze And Interpret. He Not Only Makes No Effort To Understand; He Also Dismisses A Book Simply By Putting It Aside And Forgetting It. Worse Than Faintly Praising It, He Damns It By Giving It No Critical Consideration Whatever.

Imaginative Literature Primarily Pleases Rather Than Teaches. It Is Much Easier To Be Pleased Than Taught, But Much Harder To Know Why One Is Pleased. Beauty Is Harder To Analyze Than Truth.

The Teacher's Role In Discussion Is To Keep It Going Along Fruitful Lines - Be Moderating, Guiding, Correcting And Arguing Like One More Students.

Reading A Book Should Be A Conversation Between You And The Author. Presumably He Knows More About The Subject Than You Do; If Not, You Probably Should Not Be Bothering With His Book. But Understanding Is A Two-way Operation; The Learner Has To Question Himself And Question The Teacher, Once He Understands What The Teacher Is Saying. Marking A Book Is Literally An Expression Of Your Differences Or Your Agreements With The Author. It Is The Highest Respect You Can Pay Him.

Conjugal Love, Or The Friendship Of Spouses, Persists After Sexual Desires Have Weakened, Withered, And Disappeared.

Lost Friendship

We Acknowledge But One Motive - To Follow The Truth As We Know It, Whithersoever It May Lead Us; But In Our Heart Of Hearts We Are Well Assured That The Truth Which Has Made Us Free, Will In The End Make Us Glad Also.

Love Without Conversation Is Impossible.

The Complexities Of Adult Life Get In The Way Of The Truth. The Great Philosophers Have Always Been Able To Clear Away The Complexities And See Simple Distinctions - Simple Once They Are Stated, Vastly Difficult Before. If We Are To Follow Them We Too Must Be Childishly Simple In Our Questions - And Maturely Wise In Our Replies.

We Wish The Joy Of Love, The Joy Of Companionship, Of Being In The Company Of, In The Presence Of The Person We Love, Of Living A Common Life With That Person, Perhaps Ultimately The Joy Of Perfect Union.

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