A biography for Mortimer Adlerhasn’t been written yet.
“The love which moves the world, according to common Christian belief, is God's love and the love of God.”
“Love wishes to perpetuate itself. Love wishes for immortality.”
“The philosopher ought never to try to avoid the duty of making up his mind.”
“Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless.”
“In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.”
“Being influential is not the mark of a great book.”
“Love without conversation is impossible.”
“You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.”
“We acknowledge but one motive - to follow the truth as we know it, whithersoever it may lead us; but in our heart of hearts we are well assured that the truth which has made us free, will in the end make us glad also.”
“Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity.”
“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.”
“The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea.”
“We love even when our love is not requited.”
“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 sexual interest, rather than the other way.”
“There is only one situation I can think of in which men and women make an effort to read better than they usually do. It is when they are in love and reading a love letter.”
“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.”
“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.”
“Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.”
“An educated person is one who, through the travail of his own life, has assimilated the ideas that make him representative of his culture.”
“Leisure is not synonymous with time. Nor is it a noun. Leisure is a verb. I leisure. You leisure.”