Lewis Carroll - Through the Looking-Glass (1871)

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"The rule is, jam tomorrow, and jam yesterday— but never jam today." "It must come sometimes to 'jam today,' " Alice objected. "No, it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every other day: today isn't any other day, you know."

Lewis Carroll
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knockdown argument,'" Alice objected. "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you canmake words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

Lewis Carroll
"There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Lewis Carroll
The Red Queen shook her head, "You may call it nonsense if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"

Lewis Carroll
"Crawling at your feet," said the Gnat (Alice drew her feet back in some alarm), "you may observe a Bread-and-butter-fly. Its wings are thin slices of bread-and-butter, its body is a crust, and its head is a lump of sugar." "And what does it live on?" "Weak tea with cream in it."

Lewis Carroll
Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas - only I don't exactly know what they are!

Lewis Carroll
"My name is Alice.." "It's a stupid name enough!" Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently. "What does it mean?" "Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully. "Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh; "my name means the shape I am... With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost."

Lewis Carroll
"I see nobody on the road," said Alice. "I only wish I had such eyes," the King remarked in a fretful tone. "To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people, by this light."

Lewis Carroll
All this time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass.

Lewis Carroll
Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn't good to drink.

Lewis Carroll
I can explain all the poems that were ever invented - and a good many that haven't been invented just yet.

Lewis Carroll
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you havn't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast..."

Lewis Carroll
Curtsey while you're thinking what to say. It saves time.

Lewis Carroll
"If you think we're waxworks," he said, "you ought to pay, you know. Waxworks weren't made to be looked at for nothing. Nohow!"

Lewis Carroll
There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents, and only one for birthday presents, you know.

Lewis Carroll
He's an Anglo-Saxon Messenger—and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes.

Lewis Carroll
So young a child ought to know which way she's going, even if she doesn't know her own name!

Lewis Carroll
Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread --
A trifle, if you please.

Lewis Carroll
Child of the pure, unclouded brow And dreaming eyes of wonder! Though time be fleet and I and thou Are half a life asunder, Thy loving smile will surely hail The love-gift of a fairy tale.

Lewis Carroll
Alice thought to herself, 'Then there's no use in speaking.' The voices didn't join in this time, as she hadn't spoken, but to her great surprise, they all thought in chorus (I hope you understand what thinking in chorus means—for I must confess that I don't), 'Better say nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!

Lewis Carroll
The Carpenter said nothing but "The butter's spread too thick!"

Lewis Carroll
He said, 'I look for butterflies
That sleep among the wheat:
I make them into mutton-pies,
And sell them in the street.'

Lewis Carroll
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

Lewis Carroll
'Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, 'if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be: but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'

Lewis Carroll
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!'

Lewis Carroll
'It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,' the Queen remarked.

Lewis Carroll
"Now! Now!" cried the Queen. "Faster! Faster!"

Lewis Carroll
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"

Lewis Carroll
Always speak the truth — think before you speak — and write it down afterwards.

Lewis Carroll
They gave it me — for an unbirthday present.

Lewis Carroll