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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.

-Mortimer Adler

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Television, Radio, And All

Mortimer Adler

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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.

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Love Wishes To Perpetuate Itself. Love Wishes For Immortality.

True Freedom Is Impossible Without A Mind Made Free By Discipline.

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The Dictionary Also Invites A Playful Reading. It Challenges Anyone To Sit Down With It In An Idle Moment. There Are Worse Ways To Kill Time.

The Telephone Book Is Full Of Facts, But It Doesn't Contain A Single Idea.

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.

All Books Will Become Light In Proportion As You Find Light In Them.

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.

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.

The Love Which Moves The World, According To Common Christian Belief, Is God's Love And The Love Of God.

The Rules For Reading Yourself To Sleep Are Easier To Follow Than Are The Rules For Staying Awake While Reading. Get Into Bed In A Comfortable Position, Make Sure The Light Is Inadequate Enough To Cause Slight Eyestrain, Choose A Book That Is Either Terribly Difficult Or Terribly Boring-in Any Event, One That You Do Not Really Care Whether You Read Or Not-and You Will Be Asleep In A Few Minutes. Those Who Are Experts In Relaxing With A Book Do Not Have To Wait For Nightfall. A Comfortable Chair In The Library Will Do Any Time

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.

In Aristotelian Terms, The Good Leader Must Have Ethos, Pathos And Logos. The Ethos Is His Moral Character, The Source Of His Ability To Persuade. The Pathos Is His Ability To Touch Feelings To Move People Emotionally. The Logos Is His Ability To Give Solid Reasons For An Action, To Move People Intellectually.

The Philosopher Ought Never To Try To Avoid The Duty Of Making Up His Mind.

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.

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

Angels Are Not Merely Forms Of Extraterrestrial Intelligence. They Are Forms Of Extra-cosmic Intelligence.

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

Lost Friendship

Emancipation Of Human Labor From Economic Servitude And Exploitation, I.e., From Organizations Of Production In Which The Conditions Of Work Are Determined By A Master Class Who Own The Means Of Production, And In Which The Fruits Of Work Are Alienated From Workers To The Benefit Of Masters.

I Wonder If Most People Ever Ask Themselves Why Love Is Connected With Reproduction. And If They Do Ask Themselves About This, I Wonder What Answer They Give.

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.

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

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.

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?

Books Are Absent Teachers.

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.

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.

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If One Wants Another Only For Some Self-satisfaction, Usually In The Form Of Sensual Pleasure, That Wrong Desire Takes The Form Of Lust Rather Than Love.

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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.

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My Chief Reason For Choosing Christianity Was Because The Mysteries Were Incomprehensible. What's The Point Of Revelation If We Could Figure It Out Ourselves? If It Were Wholly Comprehensible, Then It Would Just Be Another Philosophy.

Men Value Things In Three Ways: As Useful, As Pleasant Or Sources Of Pleasure, And As Excellent, Or As Intrinsically Admirable Or Honorable.

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.

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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.

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

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

The Only Standard We Have For Judging All Of Our Social, Economic, And Political Institutions And Arrangements As Just Or Unjust, As Good Or Bad, As Better Or Worse, Derives From Our Conception Of The Good Life For Man On Earth, And From Our Conviction That, Given Certain External Conditions, It Is Possible For Men To Make Good Lives For Themselves By Their Own Efforts.

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.

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

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

It Is Love Rather Than Sexual Lust Or Unbridled Sexuality If, In Addition To The Need Or Want Involved, There Is Also Some Impulse To Give Pleasure To The Persons Thus Loved And Not Merely To Use Them For Our Own Selfish Pleasure.

The Ability To Retain A Child's View Of The World With At The Same Time A Mature Understanding Of What It Means To Retain It, Is Extremely Rare - And A Person Who Has These Qualities Is Likely To Be Able To Contribute Something Really Important To Our Thinking.

One Reader Is Better Than Another In Proportion As He Is Able Of A Greater Range Of Activity In Reading And Exerts More Effort.

The Great Authors Were Great Readers, And One Way To Understand Them Is To Read The Books They Read.

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

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.

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.

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

Love Without Conversation Is Impossible.

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.

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

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.

We Love Even When Our Love Is Not Requited.

If A Book Is Easy And Fits Nicely Into All Your Language Conventions And Thought Forms, Then You Probably Will Not Grow Much From Reading It. It May Be Entertaining, But Not Enlarging To Your Understanding. It’s The Hard Books That Count. Raking Is Easy, But All You Get Is Leaves; Digging Is Hard, But You Might Find Diamonds.

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.

Let Me Roughly Divide Books Into Those Which Compete With The Movies And Those With Which The Movies Cannot Compete. They Are The Books That Can Elevate Or Instruct. If They Are Fine Works Of Fiction, They Can Deepen Your Appreciation Of Human Life. If They Are Serious Works Of Nonfiction, They Can Inform Or Enlighten You.

I Suspect That Most Of The Individuals Who Have Religious Faith Are Content With Blind Faith

One Of The Embarrassing Problems For The Early Nineteenth-century Champions Of The Christian Faith Was That Not One Of The First Six Presidents Of The United States Was An Orthodox Christian.

It's Not How Many Books You Get Through, It's How Many Books Get Through You.

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.

Philosophy Is Everybody's Business.

Too Many Facts Are Often As Much Of An Obstacle To Understanding As Too Few. There Is A Sense In Which We Moderns Are Inundated With Facts To The Detriment Of Understanding.

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.

Freedom Is The Emancipation From The Arbitrary Rule Of Other Men.

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.

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