Mortimer Adler quotes - page 3

Mortimer Adler was an American philosopher, educator, and author known for his work on the Great Books of the Western World and popularizing philosophy. A leading advocate for liberal education, his influence extended to curriculum design and public intellectual life. He wrote numerous books and essays, helping to make philosophy accessible to a wider audience. Here are 62 of his quotes:

To avoid this error, the error of assuming that that to be widely read and to be well read are the same thing, we must consider a certain distinction in types of learning. ... In the history of education, men have often distinguished between learning by instruction and learning by discovery. ... Discovery stands to instruction as learning without a teacher stands to learning through the help of one. In both cases the activity of learning goes on in the one who learns. It would be a mistake to suppose that discovery is active learning, and instruction passive. There is no inactive learning, just as there is no inactive reading. This is so true, in fact, that a better way to make the distinction clear is to call instruction "aided discovery.”. (Mortimer Adler)
It is obvious that teaching is a very special art, sharing with only two other arts, agriculture and medicine, an exceptionally important characteristic A doctor may do many things for his patient, but in the final analysis, it is the patient himself who must get well, grow in health. The farmer does many things for his plants or animals, but in the final analysis, it is they that must grow in size and excellence. Similarly, although the teacher may help his student in many ways, it is the student himself who must do the learning. Knowledge must grow in his mind if learning is to take place. View quote
Mortimer Adler
For the educational establishment... test scores are treated as indications of the extent to which the required ground covering has been done. ...as educationally significant. However, while they may be prognostic of a child's ability to get through school... they do not provide us with an appraisal of the child's progress in the long process of becoming a generally educated human being -- the advance made toward a more skillful, thoughtful, and cultivated mind. View quote
Mortimer Adler
...an adequate reform of public education in our school system cannot be accomplished by anything like a quick fix. We suspect that anyone who thinks otherwise cannot fully understand the shape of an adequate reform or all the obstacles to be overcome in achieving it. View quote
Mortimer Adler
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. View quote
Mortimer Adler
Sometimes it feels like I'm thinking against the wind. View quote
Mortimer Adler
There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Wisdom is fortified, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations. Ignorance does not make a fool as surely as self-deception. View quote
Mortimer Adler
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature. View quote
Mortimer Adler
The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read. View quote
Mortimer Adler
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. View quote
Mortimer Adler
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. (Mortimer Adler)
The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth. View quote
Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler - Image
Photo: Center for the Study of The Great Ideas, CC BY-SA 3.0
Occupation: American Philosopher
Born: December 28, 1902
Died: June 28, 2001
Quotes count: 62
Wikipedia: Mortimer Adler

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