Lewis Carroll Quotes (241 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

What the Tortoise Said to Achilles

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll: 241 quotes 302 likes

Famous Lewis Carroll Quotes

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

Lewis Carroll

“Where should I go?" -Alice. "That depends on where you want to end up." - The Cheshire Cat.”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Variant: But if I’m not the same, the next question is, ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!
Source: Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll Quotes about life

“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.”

Lewis Carroll

This is a paraphrase of statement in a thank you note from Carroll to a childhood friend, the actress Ellen Terry, published in Ellen Terry, Player in Her Time (1997), p. 126 https://books.google.com/books?id=2PkzZ9KaRlwC&lpg=PA126&vq=%22do%20for%20others%22&pg=PA126#v=snippet&q=%22do%20for%20others%22&f=fals by Nina Auerbach: "... and so you have found out that secret — one of the deep secrets of Life — that all, that is really worth the doing, is what we do for others?"
Disputed

“Is all our Life, then, but a dream
Seen faintly in the golden gleam
Athwart Time's dark resistless stream?”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Sylvie and Bruno (1889)
Context: p>Is all our Life, then, but a dream
Seen faintly in the golden gleam
Athwart Time's dark resistless stream?Bowed to the earth with bitter woe
Or laughing at some raree-show
We flutter idly to and fro.Man's little Day in haste we spend,
And, from its merry noontide, send
No glance to meet the silent end.</p

“I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole—and yet—and yet—it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life!”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

“If you limit your actions in life to things that nobody can possibly find fault with, you will not do much!”

Lewis Carroll

“Life, what is it but a dream?”

Lewis Carroll

“but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Variant: Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll: Trending quotes

“Everything is funny, if you can laugh at it.”

Lewis Carroll

Variant: Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“IN THE END… We only regret the chances we didn’t take, the relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make.”

Lewis Carroll

Decision , Chance , Waiting

“She who saves a single soul, saves the universe.”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Soul , Universe

Lewis Carroll Quotes

“Mad Hatter: “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
“No, I give it up,” Alice replied: “What’s the answer?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Idea , Madness

“I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.”

Lewis Carroll

Variant: I'm not crazy. My reality is just different than yours.

Reality

“There is a place, like no place on earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger. Some say, to survive it, you need to be as mad as a hatter. Which, luckily, I am.”

Lewis Carroll

Madness

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Variant: Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Source: Alice in Wonderland

“I wonder if I've been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

World , Feeling , Question , Thinking

“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”

The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know,” Alice answered.

“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Variant: One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Cats , Tree

“Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards.”

Lewis Carroll

Truth , Thinking

“Only the insane equate pain with success."
"The uninformed must improve their deficit, or die."
_Cheshire Cat”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories

Pain , Cats , Success

“Begin at the beginning, the King said, very gravely, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Way , Dependency

“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?”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

World

“Alice: How long is forever?
White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“I wonder if the snowthe trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Kiss , Sleep , Tree , Summer

“If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

World , Business

“I don't think… then you shouldn't talk, said the Hatter.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Thinking

“I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then”

Lewis Carroll

Variant: I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Thinking , Change , Time

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

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Jabberwocky and Other Poems

“Curiouser and curiouser.”

Lewis Carroll

Variant: Curiouser and curiouser!
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Time

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

War , Imagination , Reality

“Do you know, I always thought unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!"

Well, now that we have seen each other," said the unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you.”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And Through The Looking Glass

“I'm afraid I can't explain myself, sir. Because I am not myself, you see?”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Variant: I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir,' said Alice, 'Because I'm not myself you see.
Source: Alice in Wonderland

“In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream- Lingering in the golden gleam- Life, what is it but a dream?”

Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass

Source: Through the Looking Glass

Life , Lie , Dreams , Summer

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“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

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“If you don't know where you are going any road can take you there”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Variant: If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which path you take.
Source: Alice in Wonderland

“The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings”

Lewis Carroll

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Shoe , Time

“He was part of my dream, of course -- but then I was part of his dream, too.”

Lewis Carroll

Dreams , Parting

“I do not know if 'Alice in Wonderland' was an original story — I was, at least, no conscious imitator in writing it — but I do know that, since it came out, something like a dozen story-books have appeared, on identically the same pattern.”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Preface
Sylvie and Bruno (1889)
Context: I do not know if 'Alice in Wonderland' was an original story — I was, at least, no conscious imitator in writing it — but I do know that, since it came out, something like a dozen story-books have appeared, on identically the same pattern. The path I timidly explored believing myself to be 'the first that ever burst into that silent sea' — is now a beaten high-road: all the way-side flowers have long ago been trampled into the dust: and it would be courting disaster for me to attempt that style again.

Books , Appearance

“I believe this thought, of the possibility of death — if calmly realised, and steadily faced would be one of the best possible tests as to our going to any scene of amusement being right or wrong.”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Preface
Sylvie and Bruno (1889)
Context: I believe this thought, of the possibility of death — if calmly realised, and steadily faced would be one of the best possible tests as to our going to any scene of amusement being right or wrong. If the thought of sudden death acquires, for you, a special horror when imagined as happening in a theatre, then be very sure the theatre is harmful for you, however harmless it may be for others; and that you are incurring a deadly peril in going. Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.
But, once realise what the true object is in life — that it is not pleasure, not knowledge, not even fame itself, 'that last infirmity of noble minds' — but that it is the development of character, the rising to a higher, nobler, purer standard, the building-up of the perfect Man — and then, so long as we feel that this is going on, and will (we trust) go on for evermore, death has for us no terror; it is not a shadow, but a light; not an end, but a beginning!

Death

“Fading, with the Night, the memory of a dead love, and the withered leaves of a blighted hope, and the sickly repinings and moody regrets that numb the best energies of the soul: and rising, broadening, rolling upward like a living flood, the manly resolve, and the dauntless will, and the heavenward gaze of faith — the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen!
"Look Eastward! Aye, look Eastward!"”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Source: Sylvie and Bruno (1889), Chapter 25 : Looking Eastward

Love , Faith , Hope , Soul

“Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

“How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going to be, from one minute to another.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Change

“The Mad Hatter: "Would you like some wine?"
Alice: "Yes…"
The Mad Hatter: "We haven't any and you're too young.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Wine , Madness

“Off with their heads!”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“And what is the use of a book, without pictures or conversation?”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Books

“It is better to be feared than loved.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Positive , Good Night , Love , Fear

“Tut, tut, child!" said the Duchess. "Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.”

Lewis Carroll

Variant: Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

Lewis Carroll

“Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“Speak in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing--
turn your toes out when you walk---
And remember who you are!”

Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass

Source: Through the Looking Glass

Thinking

“I'd give all the wealth that years have piled,
the slow result of life's decay,
To be once more a little child
for one bright summer day.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Solitude (1853), conclusion
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)
Context: p>Ye golden hours of Life's young spring,
Of innocence, of love and truth!
Bright, beyond all imagining,
Thou fairy-dream of youth!I'd give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life's decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer-day.</p

Life , Summer , Wealth

“Just look down the road and tell me if you can see either of them."
I see nobody on the road." said Alice.
I only wishhad such eyes,"the King remarked in a fretful tone. "To be able to see Nobody! And at such a distance too!”

Lewis Carroll

“Why is a raven like a writing desk?”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.”

Lewis Carroll

Variant: She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass