Great Throughts Treasury

"I'm a poor man, your majesty, the Hatter began in a weak voice, and I hadn't but just begun my tea, not more than a week or so, and what with the bread and butter so thin - and the twinkling of the tea-"

"I'm sure I'm not Ada for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine doesn?t go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I'm not Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she's she and I'm I, and-oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is-oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication- Table doesn't signify: let's try geography. London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome-no, that's all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel!"

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

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

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

"I'm very much afraid I didn't mean anything but nonsense. Still, you know, words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means. So, whatever good meanings are in the book, I'm glad to accept as the meaning of the book."

"I'm sure those are not the right words, said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh, ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it: if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their heads down and saying 'Come up again, dear!' I shall only look up and say 'Who Am I, then? Tell me that first, and then if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else' - but oh dear! Cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, I do wish they would put their heads down! I am so very tired of being all alone here!"

"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?"

"In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again."

"In her eyes is the living Height of a wanderer to earth from a far celestial height: summers five are all the span ? summers five since Time began to veil in mists of human night a shining angel-birth. Does an angel look from her eyes? Will she suddenly spring away, and soar to her home in the skies? Beatrice! Blessing and blessed to be!"

"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 rare-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."

"Innocent and happy Fay! Elves were made for gladness!"

"In proceeding to the dining-room, the gentleman gives one arm to the lady he escorts?it is unusual to offer both. - MORE in proceeding to the dining-room, the gentleman gives one arm to the lady he escorts?it is unusual to offer both."

"Is Life itself a dream, I wonder?"

"It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that, whatever you say to them, they always purr: If they would only purr for 'yes,' and mew for 'no,; or any rule of that sort, she had said, so that one could keep up a conversation! But how can you talk with a person if they always say the same thing?"

"It began with the tea, the Hatter said."

"It is not real work unless you would rather be doing something else."

"It is better to be feared than loved."

"It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and there was silence for some minutes."

"It is the one of the great secrets of life that those things are most worth doing, we do for others."

"It sounds like a horse,' Alice thought to herself. And an extremely small voice, close to her ear, said, 'You might make a joke on that?something about horse and hoarse, you know."

"It must come sometimes to 'jam to-day. Alice objected. No it can't, said the Queen, It's jam every other day: to-day isn't any other day, you know."

"It was much pleasanter at home, thought poor Alice, when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down the rabbit-hole--and yet--and yet--..."

"It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place."

"It?s a miserable story! said Bruno. It begins miserably, and it ends miserablier. I think I shall cry. Sylvie, please lend me your handkerchief. I haven?t got it with me, Sylvie whispered. Then I won?t cry, said Bruno manfully."

"It would be so nice if something made sense for a change."

"It's a large as life and twice as natural."

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,' says the White Queen to Alice."

"It'll be no use their putting their heads down and saying Come up again, dear! I shall only look up and say Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, 'I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!"

"It's all her fancy: she never executes nobody, you know."

"It's a pun!' the King added in an offended tone, and everybody laughed, 'Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the twentieth time that day."

"It's always tea-time."

"It's all his fancy, that: he hasn't got no sorrow, you know. Come on!"

"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!"

"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."

"Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today."

"I've had nothing yet,'Alice repilied in an offended tone, 'so I can't takr more.' 'You mean you can't take less.' said the Hatter: ' it's very easy to take more than nothing."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Professor began, the Other Professor is so kind as to recite a Poem. The title of it is 'The Pig-Tale.' He never recited it before! (General cheering among the guests.) He will never recite it again! (Frantic excitement, & wild cheering all down the hall, the Professor himself mounting the table in hot haste, to lead the cheering, & waving his spectacles in one hand & a spoon in the other.)"

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

"Keep your temper, said the Caterpillar."

"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 wish I had such eyes,the King remarked in a fretful tone. To be able to see Nobody! And at such a distance too!"

"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!"

"Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days."

"Less Bread! More Taxes!--and then all the people cheered again, and one man, who was more excited than the rest, flung his hat high into the air, and shouted (as well as I could make out) "Who roar for the Sub-Warden?" Everybody roared, but whether it was for the Sub-Warden, or not, did not clearly appear: some were shouting "Bread!" and some "Taxes!", but no one seemed to know what it was they really wanted."

"Little Alice fell dooowwwwwwn the hole, bumped her head and bruised her soul."

"Let?s consider your age to begin with ? how old are you?? ?I?m seven and a half exactly.??You needn?t say exactually,? the Queen remarked: ?I can believe it without that. Now I?ll give you something to believe. I?m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.??I can?t believe that!? said Alice. ?Can?t you?? the Queen said in a pitying tone. ?Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.? 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."

"Look after the senses and the sounds will look after themselves"

"MAD HATTER: Would you like a little more tea? Alice: Well, I haven't had any yet, so I can't very well take more. MARCH HARE: Ah, you mean you can't very well take less. MAD HATTER: Yes. You can always take more than nothing."

"Maybe it's always pepper that makes people warmed [...] and vinegar that makes them sour ... and chamomile which makes bitter ... and ... caramel and things that make children soft. Just wanted people to know this: do not be so stingy with bonbons."

"Man is an animal that writes letters."