Great Throughts Treasury

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

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

"Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it."

"I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then."

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."

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

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

"“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.""

"Everything is funny, if you can laugh at it."

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

"Life, what is it but a dream?"

"All that matters is what we do for each other."

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

"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? "

"While the laughter of joy is in full harmony with our deeper life, the laughter of amusement should be kept apart from it. The danger is too great of thus learning to look at solemn things in a spirit of mockery, and to seek in them opportunities for exercising wit."

"Which form of proverb do you prefer Better late than never, or Better never than late?"

"A sadder vision yet: thine aged sire shaming his hoary locks with treacherous wile! And dost thou now doubt Truth to be a liar? And wilt thou die, that hast forgot to smile?"

"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"

"A Hippopotamus: 'If this should stay to dine,' he said, 'There won't be much for us!'"

"A tale begun in other days, when summer suns were glowing - a simple chime, that served to time the rhythm of your rowing - whose echoes live in memory yet, though envious years would say 'forget."

"Again, the first o in borogoves is pronounced like the o in borrow. I have heard people try to give it the sound of the o in worry. Such is Human Perversity."

"Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which road do I take?' she asked. 'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat. 'I don't know,' Alice answered. 'Then,' said the Cat, 'it doesn't matter."

"A boat beneath a sunny sky, Lingering onward dreamily In an evening of July ? Children three that nestle near, Eager eye and willing ear, Pleased a simple tale to hear ? Long has paled that sunny sky: Echoes fade and memories die: Autumn frosts have slain July. Still she haunts me, phantom-wise, Alice moving under skies Never seen by waking eyes. Children yet, the tale to hear, Eager eye and willing ear, Lovingly shall nestle near. 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?"

"Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on: 'And how do you know that you're mad?' 'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?' 'I suppose so,' said Alice. 'Well then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'"

"Alice had begun with 'Let's pretend we're kings and queens;' and her sister, who liked being exact, had argued that they couldn't, because there were only two of them, and Alice hand been reduced at last to say, 'Well, you can be one of them then, and I'll be the rest."

"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."

"Alice sighed wearily. I think you might do something better with the time, she said, than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers. If you knew Time as well as I do, said the Hatter, you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's him. I don't know what you mean, said Alice. Of course you don't! the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. I dare say you never even spoke to Time! Perhaps not, Alice cautiously replied: but I know I have to beat time when I learn music. Ah! That accounts for it, said the Hatter. He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!"

"Alice laughed. '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. There goes the shawl again!"

"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!"

"ALICE: I simply must get through! DOORKNOB: Sorry, you're much too big. Simply impassible. ALICE: You mean impossible? Doorknob: No, impassible. Nothing's impossible."

"Alice! A childish story take, and with a gentile hand lay it where Childhood dreams are twined in memory's mystic band, like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers pluck'd in a far off land."

"ALICE: There is no use trying; one can't believe impossible things. QUEEN I dare say you haven't had much practice. 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."

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?' So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her."

"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."

"ALICE: This is impossible. THE MAD HATTER: Only if you believe it is."

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

"All in the golden afternoon full leisurely we glide; or both our oars, with little skill, by little arms are plied, while little hands make vain pretense our wanderings to guide."

"All in the waning light she stood, the star of perfect womanhood."

"An island-farm ? broad seas of corn stirred by the wandering breath of morn ? the happy spot where I was born."

"And a most curious country it was. There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook. I declare it?s marked out just like a large chessboard!' Alice said at last. 'There ought to be some men moving about somewhere--and so there are!' she added in a tone of delight, and her heart began to beat quick with excitement as she went on. 'It's a great huge game of chess that's being played--all over the world--if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!"

"All too soon will Childhood gay realize Life's sober sadness. Let's be merry while we may,"

"All right, said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained sometime after the rest of it had gone."

"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 Band 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? I see, said Achilles; and there was a touch of sadness in his tone."

"And hence the moral: Be ??who hang out, or, if you prefer simply: Do not think that you are someone other than you might think to others, that being who you are or could be you would not be someone other than you would be if you looked them up someone else ."

"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."

"And ever, as the story drained the wells of fancy dry, and faintly strove that weary one to put the subject by, the rest next time-- It is next time! The Happy voice cry. Thus grew the tale of Wonderland"

"And how do you know that you're mad? To begin with, said the Cat, a dog's not mad. You grant that? I suppose so, said Alice. Well then, the Cat went on, you see a dog growls when it's angry, and wags it's tale when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."

"And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, 'Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, 'Do bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it."

"And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject. Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: 'nine the next, and so on.' What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice. That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: 'because they lessen from day to day."

"And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be?"