Teachers may think they are stuffing minds, but all they are ever affecting is the memory. Nothing can ever be forced into anyone's mind except by brainwashing, which is the very opposite of genuine teaching.
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 truly great books are the few books that are over everybody's head all of the time.
Mortimer AdlerUltimately there can be no disagreement between history, science, philosophy, and theology. Where there is disagreement, there is either ignorance or error.
Mortimer AdlerAll genuine learning is active, not passive. It involves the use of the mind, not just the memory. It is a process of discovery, in which the student is the main agent, not the teacher.
Mortimer AdlerThere is a strange fact about the human mind, a fact that differentiates the mind sharply from the body. The body is limited in ways that the mind is not. One sign of this is that the body does not continue indefinitely to grow in strength and develop in skill and grace. By the time most people are thirty years old, their bodies are as good as they will ever be; in fact, many persons' bodies have begun to deteriorate by that time. But there is no limit to the amount of growth and development that the mind can sustain. The mind does not stop growing at any particular age.
Mortimer Adler