The quotations of

Felix Adler

German-American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

1851–1933

18 quotes, most often on Morality, Faith and Life & Death.

Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.
Life and Destiny (1913), Section 2: Religion
- Morality
- Religion
The Infinite, from which comes the impulse that lead us to activity, is not the highest Reason, but higher than reason; not the highest Goodness, but higher than goodness.
Life and Destiny (1913), Section 2 : Religion
- Theology
Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.
Founding Address (1876)
- Character
- Virtue
We should teach our children nothing which they shall ever need to unlearn; we should strive to transmit to them the best possessions, the truest thought, the noblest sentiments of the age in which we live.
Life and Destiny (1913), Section 9: Ethical Outlook
- Children
- Education
The bitter, yet merciful, lesson which death teaches us is to distinguish the gold from the tinsel, the true values from the worthless chaff.
Life and Destiny (1913)
- Life & Death
The condition of all progress is experience. We go wrong a thousand times before we find the right path.
Life and Destiny (1913)
- Experience
- Failure
It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by standing aloof from it — by merely speculating upon it.
Life and Destiny (1913), p.34
- Good & Evil
- Morality
Let us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live truly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting.
Life and Destiny (1913)
- Life & Death
The divine in man is our sole ground for believing that there is anything divine in the universe outside of man.
Life and Destiny (1913)
- Faith
- God
By ceaseless efforts to live the good life we maintain our moral sanity. Not from without, but from within, flow the divine waters that renew the soul.
Life and Destiny (1913), p.34
- Morality
The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect.
Founding Address (1876)
- Freedom
- Thinking
Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.
Life and Destiny (1913)
- Love
Somehow the secret of the universe is hidden in our breast. Somehow the destinies of the universe depend upon our exertions.
Life and Destiny (1913), Section 2: Religion
- Philosophy
The moral improvement of the nations and their individual components has not kept pace with the march of intellect and the advance of industry.
Founding Address (1876)
- Morality
Good deeds remain good, no matter whether we know how the world was made or not.
Life and Destiny (1913), Section 9: Ethical Outlook
- Good & Evil
- Morality

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