Quotes from Mortimer Adler

But many of the conceptual constructs that we employ in scientific and in philosophical thought concern objects such as black holes and quarks in physics, and God, spirits, and souls in metaphysics. These are objects about which it is of fundamental importance to ask about their existence in reality.

Read it quickly and with total immersion.

Let the characters into your mind and heart; suspend your disbelief, if such it is, about the events. Do not disapprove of something a character does before you understand why he does it—if then. Try as hard as you can to live in his world, not in yours; there, the things he does may be quite understandable. And do not judge the world as a whole until you are sure that you have "lived" in it to the extent of your ability.

Unless you read it quickly you will fail to see the unity of the story. Unless you read intensely you will fail to see the details.

Ask questions while you read—questions that you yourself must try to answer in the course of reading.

Knowing the rules of an art is not the same as having the habit.

We ought to desire whatever is really good for us and nothing else.

You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, I understand, before you can say any one of the following things: I agree, or I disagree, or I suspend Judgment.

It is not the stretching that tires you, but the frustration of stretching unsuccessfully because you lack the skill to stretch effectively.

A good speed reading course should therefore teach you to read at many different speeds, not just one speed that is faster than anything you can manage now. It should enable you to vary your rate of reading in accordance with the nature and complexity of the material.

One reader is better than another in proportion as he is capable of a greater range of activity in reading and exerts more effort. He is better if he demands more of himself and of the text before him.

Concentration is another name for what we have called activity in reading. The good reader reads actively, with concentration.