Lewis Carroll: Trending quotes (page 3)

“Blow, blow your trumpets till they crack,
Ye little men of little souls!
And bid them huddle at your back -
Gold-sucking leeches, shoals on shoals!Fill all the air with hungry wails -
"Reward us, ere we think or write!
Without your Gold mere Knowledge fails
To sate the swinish appetite!"”

Lewis Carroll

Fame's Penny-Trumpet st. 1 & 2
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

Men , Soul , Knowledge , Thinking

“"True love gives true love of the best:
Then take," I cried, "my heart to thee!"
The very heart from out my breast
I plucked, I gave it willingly;
Her very heart she gave to me —
Then died the glory from the west.In the gray light I saw her face,
And it was withered, old, and gray;
The flowers were fading in their place,
Were fading with the fading day.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Stolen Waters (1862)
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

Love , Flowers , Light , Heart

“The pictures, with their ruddy light,
Are changed to dust and ashes white,
And I am left alone with night.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Faces in the Fire (1860), st. 13
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

Light , Change , Night

“And she arose, and in that darkening room
Stood lonely as a spirit of the night —
Stood calm and fearless in the gathered night —
And raised her eyes to heaven. There were tears
Upon her face, but in her heart was peace.
Peace that the world nor gives nor takes away!”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

The Path of Roses (1856), concluding lines
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

World , Peace , Tear , Heart

“I suppose every child has a world of his own — and every man, too, for the matter of that. I wonder if that's the cause for all the misunderstanding there is in Life?”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Source: Sylvie and Bruno (1889), Chapter 4 : A Cunning Conspiracy

Life , World

“Yet still to choose a brat like you,
To haunt a man of forty-two,
Was no great compliment!”

Lewis Carroll

Canto 1
Phantasmagoria (1869)

“One winter night, at half past nine,
Cold, tired, and cross, and muddy,
I had come home, too late to dine”

Lewis Carroll

Opening lines
Phantasmagoria (1869)

Home , Winter , Past , Night

“Last night we owned, with looks forlorn,
"Too well the scholar knows
There is no rose without a thorn" —
But peace is made! We sing, this morn,
"No thorn without a rose!"
Our Latin lesson is complete:
We've learned that Love is Bitter-Sweet!”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

A Lesson in Latin (1888), st. 3
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

Love , Peace , Learning , Singing

“'O gin I find anither ladye,'
He said wi' sighs and tears,
'I wot my coortin' sall not be
Anither thirty years:

For gin I find a ladye gay,
Exactly to my taste,
I'll pop the question, aye or nay,
In twenty years at maist.”

Lewis Carroll

The Lang Coortin, last two stanzas
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

Question , Tear

“"What may I do?" at length I cried,
Tired of the painful task.
The fairy quietly replied,
And said "You must not ask."”

Lewis Carroll

My Fairy
Useful and Instructive Poetry (1845)

Pain

“And at last we've got to the end of this ideal racecourse! Now that you accept A and B and C and D, of course you accept Z."
"Do I?" said the Tortoise innocently. "Let's make that quite clear. I accept A and B and C and D. Suppose I still refused to accept Z?"
"Then Logic would take you by the throat, and force you to do it!" Achilles triumphantly replied. "Logic would tell you, 'You can't help yourself. Now that you've accepted A and B and C and D, you must accept Z!' So you've no choice, you see."
"Whatever Logic is good enough to tell me is worth writing down," said the Tortoise. "So enter it in your notebook, please. We will call it
(E) If A and B and C and D are true, Z must be true.
Until I've granted that, of course I needn't grant Z. So it's quite a necessary step, you see?”

Lewis Carroll book What the Tortoise Said to Achilles

"I see," said Achilles; and there was a touch of sadness in his tone.
"What the Tortoise Said to Achilles", Mind, n.s., 4 (1895), pp. 278–80

Sadness , Help

“I wasn't asleep! said Bruno, in a deeply-injured tone. "When I shuts mine eyes, it's to show that I'm awake!"”

Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno

Source: Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), Chapter 1: Bruno's Lessons

“The air is bright with hues of light
And rich with laughter and with singing:
Young hearts beat high in ecstasy,
And banners wave, and bells are ringing:
But silence falls with fading day,
And there's an end to mirth and play.
Ah, well-a-day!”

Lewis Carroll

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

Laughter , Light , Silence , Singing

“Lady Clara Vere de Vere
Was eight years old, she said:
Every ringlet, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden thread.”

Lewis Carroll

Echoes
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

“Some American writer has said “the snakes in this district may be divided into one species—the venomous”. The same principle applies here. Postage-Stamp-Cases may be divided into one species, the “Wonderland”. Imitations of it will soon appear, no doubt: but they cannot include the two Pictorial Surprises, which are copyright.You don't see why I call them 'Surprises'? Well, take the Case in your left hand, and regard it attentively. You see Alice nursing the Duchess's Baby? (An entirely new combination, by the way : it doesn't occur in the book.) Now, with your right thumb and forefinger, lay hold of the little book, and suddenly pull it out. The Baby has turned into a Pig I If that doesn't surprise you, why, I suppose you wouldn't be surprised if your own Mother-in-law suddenly turned into a Gyroscope!”

Lewis Carroll

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

Books , Law , Way , Appearance

“Who's the Knight-Mayor?" I cried. Instead
Of answering my question,
"Well, if you don't know THAT," he said,
"Either you never go to bed,
Or you've a grand digestion!”

Lewis Carroll

Canto 5, "Byckerment"
Phantasmagoria (1869)

Question

“The dying crimson of the West
That faintly tinged his haggard cheek,
Fell on her as she stood, and shed
A glory round the patient head.”

Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Three Sunsets (1861)
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

“"I've caught a cold," the Thing replies,
"Out there upon the landing."
I turned to look in some surprise,
And there, before my very eyes,
A little Ghost was standing!”

Lewis Carroll

Canto 1, "The Trysting"
Phantasmagoria (1869)

“The rabbits bow before thee,
And cower in the straw;
The chickens are submissive,
And own thy will for law;
Bullfinches and canary
Thy bidding do obey;
And e'en the tortoise in its shell
Doth never say thee nay.”

Lewis Carroll

Lays of Sorrow No. 2
The Rectory Umbrella

Law

“So, to reward him for his run
(As it was baking hot,
And he was over twenty stone),
The King proceeded, half in fun,
To knight him on the spot.”

Lewis Carroll

Explaining the Knight-Mayor's name
Canto 5
Phantasmagoria (1869)