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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
ReadingEducationLifeKnowledgePersonal Development
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about self-improvement, one could use this quote to inspire others to embrace reading.
More from Mortimer Adler
All quotes βThe 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.
Mortimer AdlerRead
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.
Mortimer AdlerRead
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.
Mortimer AdlerRead
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.
Mortimer AdlerRead
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.
Mortimer AdlerRead
Similar quotes
The world is a university and everyone in it is a teacher. Make sure when you wake up in the morning you go to school.
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I had hundreds of books under my skin already. Not selected reading, all of it. Some of it could be called trashy. I had been through Nick Carter, Horatio Alger, Bertha M. Clay and the whole slew of dime novelists in addition to some really constructive reading. I do not regret the trash. It has harmed me in no way. It was a help, because acquiring the reading habit early is the important thing. Taste and natural development will take care of the rest later on.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
Books were the window from which I looked out of a rather meager and decidedly narrow room onto a rich and wonderful universe. I loved the look and feel of books, even the smell... Libraries were treasure houses. I always entered them with a slight thrill of disbelief that all their endless riches were mine for the borrowing.
Zilpha Keatley SnyderRead
We cannot always build a future for our youth, but we can always build our youth for the future.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead
The part of my education that has had the deepest influence wasn't any particular essay or even a specific class, it was how I was able to apply everything I learned in the library to certain situations in my life. . . The library takes me away from my everyday life and allows me to see other places and learn to understand other people unlike myself.
Gloria EstefanRead
Equality of opportunity is meaningless for those who do not have the capabilities to take advantage of it.
Ha-Joon ChangRead