In idling, the motor's running, but you're letting your mind take in anything. Things pop into it. Those are the gifts of subterranean conscious.
Mortimer AdlerRead
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
Interpretation
Reading is essential for personal development and a fulfilling life.
Mortimer Adler emphasizes the importance of reading as a fundamental skill necessary for living well. He suggests that reading not only enriches knowledge but also plays a crucial role in shaping our understanding of the world, thereby contributing to the overall quality of life.
In practice
In a speech about self-improvement, one could use this quote to inspire others to embrace reading.
In idling, the motor's running, but you're letting your mind take in anything. Things pop into it. Those are the gifts of subterranean conscious.
The only standard we have for judging all of our social, economic, and political institutions and arrangements as just or unjust, as good or bad, as better or worse, derives from our conception of the good life for man on earth, and from our conviction that, given certain external conditions, it is possible for men to make good lives for themselves by their own efforts.
A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser.
If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.
In 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.
If your friend wishes to read your 'Plutarch's Lives,' 'Shakespeare,' or 'The Federalist Papers,' tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat - but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
I think of it often and imagine the scene clearly. Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.
You educate a boy, and he'll have fewer children, but it's a small effect. You educate a girl, and, on average, she will have a significantly smaller family.
If we want to invest in the prosperity of our nation, we must invest in the education of our children so that their talents may be fully employed.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the rest of the Ivy League are worthy institutions, to be sure, but they're not known for educating large numbers of poor young people.
You parents can provide no better gift for your children than an education in the liberal arts. House and home burn down, but an education is easy to carry along.
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