In idling, the motor's running, but you're letting your mind take in anything. Things pop into it. Those are the gifts of subterranean conscious.
Mortimer AdlerRead
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.
Interpretation
Taking time for rest and reflection is essential for creativity and thought.
Mortimer Adler highlights the importance of giving oneself space and time to think, suggesting that periods of inactivity can facilitate creativity and allow new ideas to emerge. Without moments of stillness, our minds may become cluttered, hindering the process of thinking deeply and effectively.
In practice
You might use this quote during a workshop on creativity to emphasize the importance of downtime.
In idling, the motor's running, but you're letting your mind take in anything. Things pop into it. Those are the gifts of subterranean conscious.
The only standard we have for judging all of our social, economic, and political institutions and arrangements as just or unjust, as good or bad, as better or worse, derives from our conception of the good life for man on earth, and from our conviction that, given certain external conditions, it is possible for men to make good lives for themselves by their own efforts.
A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser.
If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.
If your friend wishes to read your 'Plutarch's Lives,' 'Shakespeare,' or 'The Federalist Papers,' tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat - but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.
The cat in gloves catches no mice.
Seek advice, but make sure it's from someone who has successfully handled mistakes or adversities.
Knowledge, or verbal facility, is no proof that you know what you're talking about.
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials.
The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.
I am traveling less in order to be able to write more. I select my travel destinations according to their degree of usefulness to my work.
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