Mortimer Adler
Mortimer Adler
Mortimer Jerome Adlerwas an American philosopher, educator, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for long stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo, California. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, and Adler's own Institute for Philosophical Research...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 December 1902
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
An educated person is one who, through the travail of his own life, has assimilated the ideas that make him representative of his culture.
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
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.
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature.
The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession of every kind of good, by the enjoyment of every type of satisfaction.
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.
In idling, the motor's running, but you're letting your mind take in anything. Things pop into it. Those are the gifts of subterranean conscious.
Being influential is not the mark of a great book.
Idling is important. Most people don't know how. They're afraid of it. This explains why they turn on the television set or pick up the newspaper. They think they have to be doing something.
Work is toil: what one does only to earn a living. If it gives pleasure, it is leisure.
Leisure is not synonymous with time. Nor is it a noun. Leisure is a verb. I leisure. You leisure.
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.
Inquiry not only begins with wonder, but usually ends with it also.
Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity.