I. Frost's Selected Quotations

Everything at Amazon by and about: Lewis Carrol

"If everybody minded their own business," the Duchess said, in a hoarse growl, "the world would go round a deal faster than it does".
Lewis Carrol

"If you knew Time as well as I do," said the Hatter, "you wouldn't talk about wasting IT. It's HIM."
Lewis Carrol

"You won't make yourself a bit realer by crying." said Twidledee
Lewis Carrol

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

'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that you were or might have been not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'
Lewis Carrol

"Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin," thought Alice; "but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"
Lewis Carrol

"I'm very brave generally," he went on in a low voice: "only today I happen to have a headache."
Lewis Carrol

"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," said the Cheshire Cat. "I dont much care where--" said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat. "--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation. "Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
Lewis Carrol
'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I- I hardly know, Sir, just at present--at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.' 'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar, sternly. 'Explain yourself!' 'I ca'n't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir,' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself, you see.' 'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar.
Lewis Carrol

?2?. 'What sort of people live about here?' 'In that direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives a Hatter : and in that direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.' 'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. 'Oh, you ca'n't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'
Lewis Carrol

?3?. '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. 'Why, 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, which seemed to be talking in its 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
Lewis Carrol

?4?. 'Tut, tut, child!' said the Duchess. 'Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.' ''Tis so,' said the Duchess: 'and the moral of that is-- "Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round!"' 'Somebody said,' Alice whispered, 'that it's done by everybody minding their own business!' 'Ah well! It means much the same thing,' said the Duchess, digging her sharp little chin into Alice's shoulder as she added 'and the moral of that is--"Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves."' 'I've a right to think,' said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to feel a little worried. 'Just about as much right,' said the Duchess, 'as pigs have to fly;
Lewis Carrol

?5?. 'When we were little,' the Mock Turtle went on at last, 'we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle--we used to call him Tortoise' 'Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked. 'We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle angrily.
Lewis Carrol

?6?. 'I only took the regular course.' 'What was that?' inquired Alice. 'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle replied; 'and then the different branches of Arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.' 'I never heard of "Uglification",' Alice ventured to say. 'What is it?' The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. 'Never heard of uglifying!' it exclaimed. 'You know what to beautify is, I suppose?' 'Yes,' said Alice doubtfully: 'it means -- to -- make -- anything -- prettier.' 'Well, then,' the Gryphon went on, 'if you don't know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.'
Lewis Carrol

?7?. 'Hadn't time,' said the Gryphon: 'I went to the Classical master, though. He was an old crab, he was.' 'I never went to him,' the Mock Turtle said with a sigh. 'He taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.'
Lewis Carrol

?8?. '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.'
Lewis Carrol

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone: "so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take LESS," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take MORE than nothing."
Lewis Carrol

"If any one of them can explain it," said Alice, "I'll give him sixpence. I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it."
Lewis Carrol

The Red Queen shook her head. "You may call it 'nonsense' if you like" she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared to which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"
Lewis Carrol

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one CAN'T believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said he 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."
Lewis Carrol

"You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands." "I don't deny things with my HANDS," Alice objected. "Nobody said you did," said the Red Queen. "I said you couldn't if you tried."
Lewis Carrol

"Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" the white rabbit asked. "Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."
Lewis Carrol

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you CAN make words mean so many different things." "The question is" said Humpty Dumpty "which is to be master - that's all."
Lewis Carrol

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, HERE, you see, it takes all the running YOU can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that."
Lewis Carrol
Alice looked puzzled. "In OUR country," she remarked, "there's only one day at a time." The Red Queen said "That's a poor thin way of doing things. Now HERE, we mostly have days and nights two or three at a time, and sometimes in the winter we take as many as five nights together - for warmth, you know."
Lewis Carrol

"Would you - be good enough -" Alice panted out, after running a little further, "to stop a minute - just to get - one's breath again?" "I'm GOOD enough," the King said, "only I'm not STRONG enough. You see, a minute goes by so fearfully quick. You might as well try to stop a Bandersnatch!"
Lewis Carrol

"...only I don't sing it," Humpty Dumpty added, as an explanation. "I see you don't," said Alice. "If you can SEE whether I'm singing or not, you've sharper eyes than most"
Lewis Carrol

"If that's all you know about it, you may stand down," continued the King. "I can't go no lower," said the Hatter; "I'm on the floor, as it is." "Then you may SIT down," the King replied.
Lewis Carrol

What is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'
Lewis Carrol

It's as large as life, and twice as natural!
Lewis Carrol

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

"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!"
Lewis Carrol

'There's nothing like eating hay when you're faint,' he remarked to her, as he munched away. 'I should think throwing cold water over you would be better,' Alice suggested: '-- or some sal-volatile.' 'I didn't say there was nothing better,' the King replied. 'I said there was nothing like it.' Which Alice did not venture to deny.
Lewis Carrol

'Who did you pass on the road?' the King went on, holding out his hand to the Messenger for some hay. 'Nobody,' said the Messenger. 'Quite right,' said the King: 'this young lady saw him too. So of course Nobody walks slower than you.' 'I do my best,' the Messenger said in a sullen tone 'I'm sure nobody walks much faster than I do!' 'He ca'n't do that,' said the King, 'or else he'd have been here first.
Lewis Carrol

Speak when you're spoken to!' the Queen sharply interrupted her. 'But if everybody obeyed that rule,' said Alice, who was always ready for a little argument, 'and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the other person always waited for you to begin, you see nobody would ever say anything, so that--'
Lewis Carrol

'Can you do Addition?' the White Queen asked.'What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?' 'I don't know,' said Alice. 'I lost count.' 'She ca'n't do Addition,' the Red Queen interrupted, 'Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight.' 'Nine from eight I ca'n't, you know,' Alice replied very readily: 'but--' 'She ca'n't do Subtraction,' said the White Queen. 'Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife-what's the answer to that?' 'I suppose--' Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen answered for her. 'Bread-and-butter, of course. Try another Subtraction sum. Take a bone from a dog: what remains?' Alice considered. 'The bone wouldn't remain, of course, if I took it--and the dog wouldn't remain: it would come to bite me--and I'm sure I shouldn't remain!' 'Then you think nothing would remain?' said the Red Queen. 'I think that's the answer.' 'Wrong, as usual,' said the Red Queen: 'the dog's temper would remain.' 'But I don't see how--' 'Why, look here!' the Red Queen cried. 'The dog would lose its temper, wouldn't it?' 'Perhaps it would,' Alice replied cautiously. 'Then if the dog went away, its temper would remain!' the Queen exclaimed triumphantly. Alice said, as gravely as she could, 'They might go different ways.' But she couldn't help thinking to herself 'What dreadful nonsense we are talking!'
Lewis Carrol

"Impenetrability! That's what I say!" "Would you tell me, please," said Alice "what that means?" "Now you talk like a reasonable child," said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. "I meant by 'impenetrability' that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life." "That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Lewis Carrol

Life what is it but a dream?
Lewis Carrol

If there's no meaning in it, said the King, that saves a world of trouble, you know as we needn't try to find any.
Lewis Carrol

It takes all the running you can do just to keep in the same place.
Lewis Carrol

"The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes.'" "Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?". Alice said, trying to feel interested. "No, you don't understand," the knight said, looking a little vexed. "That's what the name is called. The name really is 'The Aged, Aged Man.'" "Then I ought to have said 'That's what the song is called'?" Alice corrected herself. "No, you oughtn't: thats quite another thing! The song is called 'Ways and Means': but that's only what it is called, you know!" "Well, what is the song, then?" said Alice, who was, by this time completely bewilderred. "I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really is'A-sitting On a Gate': amd the tune's my own invention."
Lewis Carrol

"I quite agree with you," said the Duchess; "and the moral of that is -- `Be what you would seem to be' -- or, if you'd like it put more simply -- `Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'
Lewis Carrol

"The Walrus and the Carpenter"
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand:
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"

"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"

"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now, if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?"

"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice.
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"

"It seems a shame," the Walrus said:
"To play them such a trick.
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!"
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.
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Reflections in a Looking Glass
Lewis Carroll