## Metadata - Author: [[Charles Van Doren, Mortimer J. Adler]] - Full Title: How to Read a Book - Category: #books ## Highlights - Perhaps we know more about the world than we used to, and insofar as knowledge is prerequisite to understanding, that is all to the good. But knowledge is not as much a prerequisite to understanding as is commonly supposed. We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few. There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding. ([Location 189](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=189)) - Without going into learning theory as psychologists conceive it, it is obvious that teaching is a very special art, sharing with only two other arts—agriculture and medicine—an exceptionally important characteristic. A doctor may do many things for his patient, but in the final analysis it is the patient himself who must get well—grow in health. The farmer does many things for his plants or animals, but in the final analysis it is they that must grow in size and excellence. Similarly, although the teacher may help his student in many ways, it is the student himself who must do the learning. Knowledge must grow in his mind if learning is to take place. ([Location 316](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=316)) - The art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection. ([Location 340](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004PYDAPE&location=340))