Mortimer J. Adler Quotes

• 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

• Ask others about themselves, at the same time, be on guard not to talk too much about yourself.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Themselves, Time

• If one wants another only for some self-satisfaction, usually in the form of sensual pleasure, that wrong desire takes the form of lust rather than love.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Lust, Sensual, Wrong, Pleasure

• It is love rather than s*x*al lust or unbridled s*x*ality if, in addition to the need or want involved, there is also some impulse to give pleasure to the persons thus loved and not merely to use them for our own selfish pleasure.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Persons, Impulse, Loved, Pleasure

• Aristotle uses a mother’s love for her child as the prime example of love or friendship.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Friendship

  Tags in Prime

• The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession of every kind of good, by the enjoyment of every type of satisfaction.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Joy, Life

  Tags in Good, Learning

• The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Change/Growth, Learning

• I wonder if most people ever ask themselves why love is connected with reproduction. And if they do ask themselves about this, I wonder what answer they give.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Themselves, Reproduction, People

• We are selfish when we are exclusively or predominantly concerned with the good for ourselves. We are altruistic when we are exclusively or predominantly concerned with the good of others.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Selfish, Predominantly, Good

• The philosopher ought never to try to avoid the duty of making up his mind.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Ought, Philosopher, Avoid

• Conjugal love, or the friendship of spouses, can persist even after sexual desires have weakened, withered, and disappeared.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Friendship

  Tags in Persist, Disappeared, Weakened

• Erotic or s*x*al love can truly be love if it is not selfishly s*x*al or lustful.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

• Freud’s view is that all love is s*x*al in its origin or its basis. Even those loves which do not appear to be s*x*al or erotic have a s*x*al root or core. They are all sublimations of the s*x*al instinct.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Origin

• In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Tags in Different, Distinct

• Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Tags in Selfless, Benevolence, Unselfish

• One of the aims of s*x*al union is procreation – the creation by reproduction of an image of itself, of the union.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Creation

  Tags in Union, Reproduction

• Theories of love are found in the works of scientists, philosophers, and theologians.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Scientists, Theologians

• We love even when our love is not requited.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

Mortimer J. Adler (40)

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

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