Great Throughts Treasury

"You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some severity; 'it's very rude.' The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, 'Why is a raven like a writing-desk?' 'Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they've begun asking riddles. ? I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud. 'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare. 'Exactly so,' said Alice. 'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on. 'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least ? at least I mean what I say ? that's the same thing, you know.' 'Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. 'You might just as well say that I see what I eat is the same thing as I eat what I see!' 'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that I like what I get is the same thing as I get what I like!' 'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, 'that I breathe when I sleep is the same thing as I sleep when I breathe!' 'It is the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn't much."

"You might just as well say, added the March Hare, that ?I like what I get? is the same thing as ?I get what I like?!"

"?You're not the same as you were before, he said. You were much more... muchier... you've lost your muchness."

"You're thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can't tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit. Perhaps it hasn't one, Alice ventured to remark. Tut, tut, child! said the Duchess. Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it."

"You might as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, 'that I breathe when I sleep is the same thing as I sleep when I breathe!' 'It is the same thing with you,' said the Hatter."

"You used to be much more...muchier. You've lost your muchness."

"You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

"You won't make yourself a bit realer by crying."

"You would have to be half mad to dream me up."

"You're mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people."

"A Postscript is a very useful invention: but it is not meant... to contain the real gist of the letter: it serves rather to throw into the shade any little matter we do not wish to make a fuss about."

"If doubtful whether to end with "yours faithfully," or "yours truly," or "yours 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!"

"Don?t try to have the last word! How many a controversy would be nipped in the bud, if each was anxious to let the other have the last word! Never mind how telling a rejoinder you leave unuttered: never mind your friend?s supposing that you are silent from lack of anything to say: let the thing drop, as soon as it is possible without discourtesy: remember "speech is silvern, but silence is golden"!"

"Don?t repeat yourself. When once you have said your say, fully and clearly, on a certain point, and have failed to convince your friend, drop that subject: to repeat your arguments, all over again, will simply lead to his doing the same; and so you will go on, like a Circulating Decimal. Did you ever know a Circulating Decimal come to an end?"

"If it should ever occur to you to write, jestingly, in dispraise of your friend, be sure you exaggerate enough to make the jesting obvious: a word spoken in jest, but taken as earnest, may lead to very serious consequences. I have known it to lead to the breaking-off of a friendship."

"If your friend makes a severe remark, either leave it unnoticed, or make your reply distinctly less severe: and if he makes a friendly remark, tending towards "making up" the little difference that has arisen between you, let your reply be distinctly more friendly. If, in picking a quarrel, each party declined to go more than three-eighths of the way, and if, in making friends, each was ready to go five-eighths of the way ? why, there would be more reconciliations than quarrels!"

"Since I have possessed a ?Wonderland Stamp Case?, Life has been bright and peaceful, and I have used no other. I believe the Queen?s laundress uses no other."

"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... A great deal of the bad writing in the world comes simply from writing too quickly."

"When you have written a letter that you feel may possibly irritate your friend, however necessary you may have felt it to so express yourself, put it aside till the next day. Then read it over again, and fancy it addressed to yourself. This will often lead to your writing it all over again, taking out a lot of the vinegar and pepper, and putting in honey instead, and thus making a muchmore palatable dish of it!"