“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”

— Mortimer J. Adler

Misattributed

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Mortimer J. Adler 31

American philosopher and educator 1902–2001

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“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”

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The earliest attributions of this remark to anyone are in 1941, to Mortimer Adler, in How To Read A Book (1940), although this actually a paraphrased shortening of a statement in his preface: Reading — as explained (and defended) in this book — is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
Misattributed

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“Every religion has basic principles that is designed to uplift people's mind and teaches good morals and ethics, the tools which lead to a harmonious society where people do not encroach, but help one another.”

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“The good is the everlasting, the pinnacle of our life. … life is striving towards the good, toward God. The good is the most basic idea … an idea not definable by reason … yet is the postulate from which all else follows.”

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Context: The good is the everlasting, the pinnacle of our life. … life is striving towards the good, toward God. The good is the most basic idea … an idea not definable by reason … yet is the postulate from which all else follows. But the beautiful … is just that which is pleasing. The idea of beauty is not an alignment to the good, but is its opposite, because for most part, the good aids in our victory over our predilections, while beauty is the motive of our predilections. The more we succumb to beauty, the further we are displaced from the good.... the usual response is that there exists a moral and spiritual beauty … we mean simply the good. Spiritual beauty or the good, generally not only does not coincide with the typical meaning of beauty, it is its opposite.

“A good book should leave you…. slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.”

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Variant: A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.
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“When a mechanic wants to fix a broken-down car engine, he must have the necessary tools to do the job. When the people move for liberation they must have the basic tool of liberation: the gun.”

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“A novelist has two lives-- a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all apart from this.”

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Source: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”

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Mortimer J. Adler 31

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