Mortimer J. Adler Quotes

Mortimer J. Adler (37)

Birth:	28th December, 1902
Death:	28th June, 2001
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Educator, Philosopher

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Today's Anniversary - 25th May

Births

• 1955 - Connie Sellecca
• 1952 - Gordon Smith
• 1939 - Dixie Carter
• 1953 - Stan Sakai
• 1889 - Igor Sikorsky

Deaths

• 1937 - Henry Ossawa Tanner
• 2005 - Ismail Merchant
• 2007 - Charles Nelson Reilly
• 1970 - Christopher Dawson
• 2006 - Desmond Dekker

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  Ultimately, we wish the joy of perfect union with the person we love.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Joy, Love

  Tags in Perfect, Person

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

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Book

• 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.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Through, Book

• 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.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in America

  Tags in Christianity, Presidency, Faith, Problems, American

• 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.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Justice, Love

  Tags in World, Care, Difference

• There is only one situation I can think of in which men and women make an effort to read better than they usually do. It is when they are in love and reading a love letter.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Effort, Love

  Tags in Situation, Women, Reading, Mankind, Men

• Love without conversation is impossible.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Impossible, Conversation

• Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Power

  Tags in Authority, Freedom, Control

• You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Time, Order

• Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Deeply, Lonely

• The love which moves the world, according to common Christian belief, is God’s love and the love of God.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Belief, God, Love

  Tags in World, Common

• 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 s*x*al interest, rather than the other way.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Intelligible, Woman, Person, Interest, Choice

• 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.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Acknowledge, Heart, Follow, Make

• Think how different human societies would be if they were based on love rather than justice. But no such societies have ever existed on earth.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Justice

  Tags in Different, Human

• Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Friendship

  Tags in Arduous, Taxing, Leisure

• Men value things in three ways: as useful, as pleasant or sources of pleasure, and as excellent, or as intrinsically admirable or honorable.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Excellent, Three, Admirable, Sources, Honorable, Useful, Pleasant

• The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn’t contain a single idea.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Telephone, Facts, Single

• Love wishes to perpetuate itself. Love wishes for immortality.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Immortality, Perpetuate, Wishes

• 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.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Expect

• 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.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Utility, Owed, Pleasure, Exchange