I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the differing motivations people have when they read.
William Lyon Phelps suggests that readers can be classified based on their intent when they engage with texts. Some individuals seek to retain knowledge and insights from their reading, aiming for understanding and memory retention, while others may approach reading as a means of escape or distraction, hoping to forget their current realities and immerse themselves in a different narrative.
In practice
In a book club discussion to explore different reading motivations.
Real happiness is not dependent on external things. The pond is fed from within. The kind of happiness that stays with you is the happiness that springs from inward thoughts and emotions. You must cultivate your mind if you wish to achieve enduring happiness.
Life, with all it's sorrows, cares, perplexities and heart-breaks, is more interesting than bovine placidity, hence more desirable. The more interesting it is, the happier it is.
The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.
The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded on fallacy. The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and we grow happier as we grow older.
Whenever it is possible, a boy should choose some occupation which he should do even if he did not need the money.
You can be deprived of your money, your job and your home by someone else, but remember that no one can ever take away your honor.
Childrens books change lives. Stories pour into the hearts of children and help make them what they become.
I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.
A child, from the time he can think, should think about all he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty, should work so that all men can be honest, and should be honest himself.
We have an education and business culture that tends to reward quick factual answers over imaginative inquiry. Questioning isnβt encouraged - it is barely tolerated.
Telling purposeful stories is interactive. It's not a monolog. Ultimately, purposeful tellers must surrender control of their stories, creating a gap for the listener(s) to willingly cross in order to take ownership. Only when the listener(s) own the tellers' story and make it theirs, will they virally market it.
When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly true. In general, the later chapters contain more reliable information than the earlier ones do. The author feels that this technique of deliberate lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. Once you understand a simple but false rule, it will not be hard to supplement that rule with its exceptions.
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