Readers may be divided into ...

Readers may be divided into four classes: 1) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied. 2) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. 3) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. 4) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also
Readers may be divided into four classes: 1) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied. 2) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. 3) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. 4) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also

Quotes from the same author

Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.
Love is flower like; Friendship is like a sheltering tree.
If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend on it, he is sinking downward to be a devil.
A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive.
For mother's sake the child was dear, and dearer was the mother for the child.