Mortimer J. Adler quotes:

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature.

The ability to retain a child's view of the world with at the same time a mature understanding of what it means to retain it, is extremely rare - and a person who has these qualities is likely to be able to contribute something really important to our thinking.

The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth.

There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Wisdom is fortified, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations. Ignorance does not make a fool as surely as self-deception.

What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business.

A lecture has been well described as the process whereby the notes of the teacher become the notes of the student without passing through the mind of either.

Is it too much to expect from the schools that they train their students not only to interpret but to criticize; that is, to discriminate what is sound from error and falsehood, to suspend judgement if they are not convinced, or to judge with reason if they agree or disagree?