Quote

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.

Mortimer Adler

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Mortimer Adler
Age: 98 †
Born: 1902
Born: December 28
Died: 2001
Died: June 28
Philosopher
Teacher
University Teacher
Writer
New York City
New York
Mortimer J. Adler
Mortimer Adler
Time
Challenges
Ways
Anyone
Playful
Reading
Dictionary
Moment
Invites
Moments
Idle
Also
Worse
Way
Kill

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Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless.
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The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth.
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Love without conversation is impossible.
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Teachers may think they are stuffing minds, but all they are ever affecting is the memory. Nothing can ever be forced into anyone's mind except by brainwashing, which is the very opposite of genuine teaching.
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... 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.
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Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature.
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The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea.
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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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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.
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Books are absent teachers.
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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.
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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.
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Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely.
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All genuine learning is active, not passive.
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To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.
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Erotic or sexual love can truly be love if it is not selfishly sexual or lustful.
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All books will become light in proportion as you find light in them.
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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.
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Sometimes it feels like I'm thinking against the wind.
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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.
Mortimer Adler