Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And we we cease to grow, we begin to die.
Mortimer AdlerWe wish the joy of love, the joy of companionship, of being in the company of, in the presence of the person we love, of living a common life with that person, perhaps ultimately the joy of perfect union.
Mortimer AdlerIn 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 AdlerThe materialist assumption that spiritual substances do not exist is as much an act of faith as the religious belief in the reality of angels.
Mortimer Adler