Lewis Carroll: Trending quotes (page 2)

“To Her, whose children's smiles fed the narrator's fancy and were his rich reward: from the Author.”

Lewis Carroll

Inscribed in Mrs. Lorina Liddell's copy of Alice's Adventures Under Ground; quoted by Edward Wakeling http://www.wakeling.demon.co.uk/page3-real-lewiscarroll.htm

Children , Smile

“If doubtful whether to end with “yours faithfully”, or “yours truly”, or “your most truly”, &c. (there are at least a dozen varieties, before you reach “yours affectionately”), refer to your correspondent’s last letter, and make your winding-up at least as friendly as his: in fact, even if a shade more friendly, it will do no harm!”

Lewis Carroll

Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing (1890)

“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.”

Lewis Carroll

Canto 1
Phantasmagoria (1869)

Men , Fear , Way , Light

“An island-farm — broad seas of corn
Stirred by the wandering breath of morn —
The happy spot where I was born.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Faces in the Fire (1860), st. 2
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

Sea , Happiness

“As you have invited me, I cannot come, for I have made a rule to decline all invitations; but I will come the next day.”

Lewis Carroll

Quoted in Beatrice Hatch, "Lewis Carroll", Strand Magazine (April 1898), p. 422

“Tis a secret: none knows how it comes, how it goes:
But the name of the secret is Love!”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Source: Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), Chapter 19: A Fairy Duet

Love , Secret

“The light was faint, and soft the air
That breathed around the place;
And she was lithe, and tall, and fair,
And with a wayward grace
Her queenly head she bare.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Stolen Waters (1862), st. 1
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

Light

“All too soon will Childhood gay
Realise Life's sober sadness.
Let's be merry while we may,
Innocent and happy Fay!
Elves were made for gladness!”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Puck Lost and Found (1891)
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

Life , Sadness , Childhood , Happiness

“The `Why?' cannot, and need not, be put into words. Those for whom a child's mind is a sealed book, and who see no divinity in a child's smile, would read such words in vain: while for any one that has ever loved one true child, no words are needed. For he will have known the awe that falls on one in the presence of a spirit fresh from GOD's hands, on whom no shadow of sin, and but the outermost fringe of the shadow of sorrow, has yet fallen: he will have felt the bitter contrast between the haunting selfishness that spoils his best deeds and the life that is but an overflowing love--for I think a child's first attitude to the world is a simple love for all living things: and he will have learned that the best work a man can do is when he works for love's sake only, with no thought of name, or gain, or earthly reward. No deed of ours, I suppose, on this side the grave, is really unselfish: yet if one can put forth all one's powers in a task where nothing of reward is hoped for but a little child's whispered thanks, and the airy touch of a little child's pure lips, one seems to come somewhere near to this.”

Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures Under Ground (1886), Introduction, p. v

Love , Life , God , Books

“Now that's a thing I WILL NOT STAND,
And so I tell you flat.”

Lewis Carroll

Canto 3
Phantasmagoria (1869)

“All in the waning light she stood,
The star of perfect womanhood.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Three Sunsets (1861), st. 1
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

Star , Light , Perfection

“There are certain things - as, a spider, a ghost,
The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three -
That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most
Is a thing they call the Sea.”

Lewis Carroll

A Sea Dirge, st.1
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

Hate , Sea

“Port-wine, he says, when rich and sound,
Warms his old bones like nectar:
And as the inns, where it is found,
Are his especial hunting-ground,
We call him the INN-SPECTRE.”

Lewis Carroll

Of "Inspector Kobold", a spectre
Canto 3, "Scarmoges"
Phantasmagoria (1869)

Wine

“A change came o'er my Vision - it was night:
We clove a pathway through a frantic throng:
The steeds, wild-plunging, filled us with affright:
The chariots whirled along.

Within a marble hall a river ran -
A living tide, half muslin and half cloth:
And here one mourned a broken wreath or fan,
Yet swallowed down her wrath”

Lewis Carroll

Four Riddles, no. I
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

Change , Clothes , Night

“If you want to inspire confidence, give plenty of statistics – it does not matter that they should be accurate, or even intelligible, so long as there is enough of them.”

Lewis Carroll

Three Years in a Curatorship, By One Whom It Has Tried, 1886

Confidence , Intelligence

“And so it fell upon a day,
(That is, it never rose again)”

Lewis Carroll

Lays of Sorrow No.1
The Rectory Umbrella

“Oh, when I was a little Ghost,
A merry time had we!
Each seated on his favourite post,
We chumped and chawed the buttered toast
They gave us for our tea.”

Lewis Carroll

Canto 4, "Hys Nouryture"
Phantasmagoria (1869)

Time , Tea

“Here is a golden Rule to begin with. Write legibly. The average temper of the human race would be perceptibly sweetened, if everybody obeyed this Rule! A great deal of the bad writing in the world comes simply from writing too quickly.”

Lewis Carroll

Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing (1890)

World

“If the Letter is to be in answer to another, begin by getting out that other letter and reading it through, in order to refresh your memory, as to what it is you have to answer, and as to your correspondent’s present address (otherwise you will be sending your letter to his regular address in London, though he has been careful in writing to give you his Torquay address in full).”

Lewis Carroll

Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing (1890)

Memory , Reading

“Say, what is the spell, when her fledgelings are cheeping,
That lures the bird home to her nest?
Or wakes the tired mother, whose infant is weeping,
To cuddle and croon it to rest?”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Source: Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), Chapter 19: A Fairy Duet

Home , Bird