If I wasn’t real,′ Alice said – half-laughing through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous – ‘I shouldn’t be able to cry.’ ‘I hope you don’t suppose those are real tears?’ Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great contempt.
Seven years and six months! Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. ‘An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you’d asked my advice, I’d have said “Leave off at seven” – but it’s too late now.
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.
A great deal of the bad writing in the world comes simply from writing too quickly. Of course you reply, “I do it to save time”. A very good object, no doubt: but what right have you to do it at your friend’s expense? Isn’t his time as valuable as yours?
You may look in front of you, and on both sides, if you like,′ said the sheep: ’but you can’t look ALL round you – unless you’ve got eyes at the back of your head.
Why, Mary Ann, what ARE you doing out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!
A very merry unbirthday to you.
I pictured myself the Queen of Hearts as sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion – a blind and aimless Fury.
The human mind is generally far more eager to praise and dispraise than to describe and define.
You are old, Father William,” the young man said, “And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head – Do you think, at your age, it is right?” “In my youth,” Father William replied to his son, “I feared it might injure the brain; But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none, Why, I do it again and again.
Serpent, I say again!′ repeated the Pigeon, but in a more subdued tone, and added with a kind of sob, ‘I’ve tried every way, and nothing seems to suit them!’ ‘I haven’t the least idea what you’re talking.
The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe that it is possible.
Oh, you foolish.
I know what you’re thinking about,” said Tweedle-dum, “But it ain’t so, nohow.” “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.
So she brushed away her tears, and went on, as cheerfully as she could.
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you’re at!
It’s the stupidest tea party I ever was at in all my life!
I’m sure the woods look sleepy in the autumn, when the leaves are getting brown.
The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and scurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.
For nonsense, as Chesterton liked to tell us, is a way of looking at existence that is akin to religious humility and wonder.