The Telephone Book Is Full

Men Value Things In Three Ways: As Useful, As Pleasant Or Sources Of Pleasure, And As Excellent, Or As Intrinsically Admirable Or Honorable.

Teachers May Think They Are Stuffing Minds, But All They Are Ever Affecting Is The Memory. Nothing Can Ever Be Forced Into Anyone's Mind Except By Brainwashing, Which Is The Very Opposite Of Genuine Teaching.

Television, Radio, And All The Sources Of Amusement And Information That Surround Us In Our Daily Lives Are Also Artificial Props. They Can Give Us The Impression That Our Minds Are Active, Because We Are Required To React To Stimuli From The Outside. But The Power Of Those External Stimuli To Keep Us Going Is Limited. They Are Like Drugs. We Grow Used To Them, And We Continuously Need More And More Of Them. Eventually, They Have Little Or No Effect. Then, If We Lack Resources Within Ourselves, We Cease To Grow Intellectually, Morally, And Spiritually. And We We Cease To Grow, We Begin To Die.

I Suspect That Most Of The Individuals Who Have Religious Faith Are Content With Blind Faith. They Feel No Obligation To Understand What They Believe. They May Even Wish Not To Have Their Beliefs Disturbed By Thought.

A Good Book Deserves An Active Reading. The Activity Of Reading Does Not Stop With The Work Of Understanding What A Book Says. It Must Be Completed By The Work Of Criticism, The Work Of Judging. The Undemanding Reader Fails To Satisfy This Requirement, Probably Even More Than He Fails To Analyze And Interpret. He Not Only Makes No Effort To Understand; He Also Dismisses A Book Simply By Putting It Aside And Forgetting It. Worse Than Faintly Praising It, He Damns It By Giving It No Critical Consideration Whatever.