Mortimer Adler Quotes
Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American philosopher and educator and the most prolific philosophical popularizer of his generation. After studies at Columbia and a long teaching career at the University of Chicago, where he co-founded with Robert Hutchins the Great Books of the Western World series, he led the Institute for Philosophical Research and the Aspen Institute. The quotes below are attributed to Mortimer Adler, organized by topic.
Browse Mortimer Adler by topic
Mortimer Adler on Knowledge
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Attributed to Mortimer Adler:
“Reading well is the foundation of thinking well.”
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Attributed to Mortimer Adler:
“Liberal education is for free people, not for free time.”
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Attributed to Mortimer Adler:
“Philosophy is everybody's business.”
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Attributed to Mortimer Adler:
“Aristotle, rightly read, is still the philosopher of common sense.”
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“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.”
As quoted in The Leisure alternatives catalog: food for mind & body (1979) edited by Joseph Allen ,p. 134 -
“You can't be a philosopher and an activist . If you do, you get all mixed up.”
As quoted in " Philosopher, reformer Mortimer Adler, father of 'Great Books' program, dies at 98" by F.N. D'Alession, lubbockonline.com, June 29, 2001) -
“Unlike many of my contemporaries, I never write books for my fellow professors to read. I have no interest in the academic audience at all. I'm interested in Joe Doakes. A general audience can read any book I write – and they do.”
As quoted in "Philosopher, reformer Mortimer Adler, father of 'Great Books' program, dies at 98" by F.N. D'Alession, lubbockonline.com (29 June 2001) -
“How to Mark a Book," The Saturday Review of Literature (6 July 1941); also in Modern English Readings (1946), pp. 298-301”
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. -
“The telephone book is full of facts , but it doesn't contain a single idea .”
As quoted in Book of Humorous Quotations 9 (1998), by Connie Robertson, p. 2 -
“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.”
How to Read a Book(1940, 1972) | p. 4 -
“Every seminar should involve at its conclusion the assignment of a short composition in which students would attempt to state how their understanding of the book discussed in the seminar was increased by their participation in the discussion.”
Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind(1990) | p. 316
Mortimer Adler on Life
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“An educated person is one who, through the travail of his own life, has assimilated the ideas that make him representative of his culture.”
Reforming Education: The Schooling of a People and Their Education Beyond Schooling(1977) | p. 255
Mortimer Adler on Truth
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Attributed to Mortimer Adler:
“Truth, goodness, and beauty are objective and discoverable.”
Mortimer Adler on Virtue
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“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.”
How to Mark a Book," The Saturday Review of Literature (6 July 1941); also in Modern English Readings (1946), pp. 298-301 -
“Above all, money-making and other external indices of social success must become subordinate to the inner attainments of moral and intellectual virtue.”
Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind(1990) | p. 314