 But we are social persons, not social animals. Hence we cannot be satisfied, as the gregarious animals are, simply by herding together, simply by being useful to another, or simply by the pleasures of bodily contact. We want to share one another's lives. How can this be done? Only by conversation -- which is indispensable to love. Love without conversation is impossible. Conversation without love is quite possible, but then it is only abstract discussion, not the heart-to-heart talk which is the conversation of lovers. Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely. Unless we enjoy the community of love -- the communication or conversation of love, we cannot get out of ourselves, and we are shut out from all others, as animals are, even when they herd closely together.
Mortimer J. Adler
http://radicalacademy.com/adleronloveintv2.htm
In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
Mortimer J. Adler
In fact, instead of saying that man is the only political animal, what I perhaps should say even more sharply here is that man is the only constitutional animal.
Mortimer J. Adler
Adler M.J. The Great Ideas. Peru, Illinois: Open Court, 2000.
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