In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
Even when you have been somewhat enlightened by what you have read, you are called upon to continue the serach for significance.
Being relevant simply consists in paying close attention to the point that is being talked about and saying nothing that is not significantly related to it.
Find and interpreting the important words.
Good books are over your head; they would not be good for you if they were not.
Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely.
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?
The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession of every kind of good, by the enjoyment of every type of satisfaction.
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.
To agree without understanding is inane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.
Only hidden and undetected oratory is really insidious. What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business.
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature.
Sometimes it feels like I’m thinking against the wind.
I suspect that most of the individuals who have religious faith are content with blind faith.
It is love rather than sexual lust or unbridled sexuality if, in addition to the need or want involved, there is also some impulse to give pleasure to the persons thus loved and not merely to use them for our own selfish pleasure.
Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless.