Benjamin R. Barber Quotes

It was like a heart transplant. We tried to implant college in him but his head rejected it.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Television was essentially my college.

The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.

I'm always trying to find brain food and indulge in knowledge that's gonna be useful.

One of the great mind destroyers of college education is the belief that if it's very complex, it's very profound.

If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.

I never read. The paper or anything. I watch a lot of movies, and TV series and stuff. But I never, never read.

There is a learning quality in all of our shows.

The test and the use of man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind.

People will pay more to be entertained than educated.

I know kids who say they have nothing to do and then go plop themselves down in front of the television to watch a movie or play Nintendo or Xbox. I think there is nothing better for killing creativity and imagination.

So many shows out there dumb-down the country. It's so admirable to be part of a show that wants people to think.

My idea of relaxation is not lying down by a beach. I have to move around, do stuff. Though I'm a massive quiz show person.

Perhaps the prevalence of pedantry may be largely accounted for by the common error of thinking that, because useful knowledge should be remembered, any kind of knowledge that is at all worth learning should be remembered too.

Encourage your children to read more and watch television less.

The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being.

It's misleading to suppose there's any basic difference between education & entertainment. This distinction merely relieves people of the responsibility of looking onto the matter.

We need a serious intellectual culture in schools.

If we educate our kids well, they will be more competitive.

Game shows are designed to make us feel better about the random, useless facts that are all we have left of our education.

Entertainment that is fact-based is, I think, where people really learn the most, because they're leaning in, their curiosity is stimulated and they're being entertained.