Quotes from Lewis Carroll

It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle - to get one's head cut off.

The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters.

When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don't state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint.

And as to being in a fright, Allow me to remark That Ghosts have just as good a right In every way, to fear the light, As Men to fear the dark.

My thirst and passion from boyhood... has been for poetry — for poetry in its widest and wildest sense — for poetry untrammelled by the laws of sense, rhyme, or rhythm, soaring through the universe, and echoing the music of the spheres! From my youth, nay, from my very cradle, I have yearned for poetry, for beauty, for novelty, for romancement.

It would fare but ill with many of us if we were left to superintend our own digestion and circulation. 'Bless me!' one would cry, 'I forgot to wind up my heart this morning! To think that it has been standing still for the last three hours!' 'I can't walk with you this afternoon,' a friend would say, 'as I have no less than eleven dinners to digest. I had to let them stand over from last week, being so busy, and my doctor says he will not answer for the consequences if I wait any longer!'

Breakfast, dinner, tea; in extreme cases, breakfast, luncheon, dinner, tea, supper, and a glass of something hot at bedtime. What care we take about feeding the lucky body! Which of us does as much for his mind? And what causes the difference? Is the body so much the more important of the two? By no means: but life depends on the body being fed, whereas we can continue to exist as animals (scarcely as men) though the mind be utterly starved and neglected.

I wonder if there is such a thing in nature as a FAT MIND? I really think I have met with one or two: minds which could not keep up with the slowest trot in conversation; could not jump over a logical fence, to save their lives; always got stuck fast in a narrow argument; and, in short, were fit for nothing but to waddle helplessly through the world.

If you set to work to believe everything, you will tire out the believing-muscles of your mind, and then you'll be so weak you won't be able to believe the simplest true things.

"I could have done it in a much more complicated way," said the Red Queen, immensely proud.

"It is very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that, whatever you say to them they always purr."

Why it's simply impassible! Alice: Why, don't you mean impossible? Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothing's impossible!

If everybody minded their own business, the world would go round a good deal faster than it does.

"Where shall I begin, please, your Majesty?" he asked. "Begin at the beginning," the King said, gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

They gave it me—for an unbirthday present.

He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud crySuch as "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!"To "What-you-may-call-um!" or?"What-was-his-name!"But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!"

If you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.

And thick and fast they came at last,And more, and more, and more—All hopping through the frothy waves,And scrambling to the shore.

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"Said his father. "Don't give yourself airs!Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs!"

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to. Alice: I don't much care where. The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go. Alice: ...So long as I get somewhere. The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

But answer came there none—And this was scarcely odd, becauseThey'd eaten every one.

He thought he saw a BuffaloUpon the chimneypiece:He looked again, and found it wasHis sister's husband's niece.

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