Mortimer J. Adler Quotes

• Love wishes to perpetuate itself. Love wishes for immortality.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Love

  Tags in Immortality, Perpetuate, Wishes

• 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

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

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Tags in Benevolence, Unselfish, Selfless

• 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

• In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Through, Book, Books, Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• I find the selectivity of erotic love – the choice of this man or this woman – much more intelligible if liking the person is the origin of s*x*al interest, rather than the other way.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Intelligible, Woman, Person, Interest, Choice

• Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Friendship

  Tags in Arduous, Taxing, Leisure

• 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

• 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

• 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 Disappeared, Weakened, Persist

• 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

• 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 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

• Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Book, Reading

• 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

• Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

  Mortimer J. Adler

  Topics in Power

  Tags in Authority, Freedom, Control

Mortimer J. Adler (40)

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

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