The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer.
His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense.
Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, University Lecturer in Mathematics and Logic, academic author of learned theses, gifted pioneer of portrait photography, colourful writer of imaginative genius and yet a shy and pedantic man, Lewis Carroll stands pre-eminent in the pantheon of inventive literary geniuses.
He also has works published under his real name.
“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.”
“Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labelled “ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.”
“Sometimes I've believed more than six impossible things before breakfast.”
“I have a fairy by my side Which says I must not sleep, When once in pain I loudly cried It said "You must not weep" If, full of mirth, I smile and grin, It says "You must not laugh" When once I wished to drink some gin It said "You must not quaff". When once a meal I wished to taste It said "You must not bite" When to the wars I went in haste It said "You must not fight". "What may I do?" at length I cried, Tired of the painful task. The fairy quietly replied, And said "You must not ask". Moral: "You mustn't.”
“Perhaps the hardest thing in all literature— at least I have found it so: by no voluntary effort can I accomplish it: I have to take it as it comes— is to write anything original. And perhaps the easiest is, when once an original line has been struck out, to follow it up, and to write any amount more to the same tune.”
“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.”
“And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be?”
“It is the one of the great secrets of life that those things are most worth doing,we do for others.”
“Keep your temper, said the Caterpillar.”
“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.”
“You mean you ca’n’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”
“You won't make yourself a bit realer by crying.”
“Where should I go?" -Alice. "That depends on where you want to end up." - The Cheshire Cat.”
“إذا لم تكن تدري إلى أين تذهب فكل الطرق تفي بالغرض.”
“We're all mad here.”
“The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.”
“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more, nor less.”
“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 someone else.”
“Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.”
“Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I am not the same, the next question is "Who in the world am I?”
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!”
“Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think—” (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the school-room, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) “—yes, that’s about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?” (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)”
“There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.”
“I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.”
“You're not the same as you were before," he said. You were much more... muchier... you've lost your muchness.”
“It's always tea-time.”
“Still she haunts me, phantomwise, Alice moving under skies Never seen by waking eyes.”
“Look after the senses and the sounds will look after themselves”
“Then it doesn't matter which way you walk...-so long as I get somewhere.”
“I don't like the looks of it,' said the King: 'however, it may kis my hand, if it likes.''I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.”
“have i gone mad?im afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usualy are.”
“For instance, take the two words "fuming" and "furious." Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards " fuming," you will say "fuming-furious;" if they turn, by even a hair's breadth, towards "furious," you will say "furious-fuming;" but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say "frumious.”
“And never, never, dear madam, put 'Wednesday' simply as the date! That way madness lies!”
“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.”
“In proceeding to the dining-room, the gentleman gives one arm to the lady he escorts—it is unusual to offer both. In proceeding to the dining-room, the gentleman gives one arm to the lady he escorts—it is unusual to offer both.”
“Not like cats ” cried the Mouse in a shrill passionate voice. “Would you like cats if you were me”
“How should I know?" said Alice, surprised at her own courage. "It's no business of mine."The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, began screaming "Off with her head! Off with--""Nonsense!" said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent.”
“The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on the slates. "What are they doing?" Alice whispered to the Gryphon. "They can't have anything to put down yet, before the trial's begun.""They're putting down their names," the Gryphon whispered in reply, "for fear they should forget them before the end of the trial.”
“What do you suppose is the use of a child without any meaning? Even a joke should have some meaning-- and a child's more imporant than a joke, I hope. You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands.”
“Ever drifting down the streamLingering in the golden gleamLife, what is it but a dream?”
“Who did you pass on the road?" the King went on, holding out his hand to the Messenger for some more 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 can't do that," said the King, "or else he'd have been here first.”
“All that matters is what we do for each other.”
“If he smiled much more, the ends of his mouth might meet behind, and then I don't know what would happen to his head! I'm afraid it would come off!”
“What does it matter where my body happens to be?' he said. 'My mind goes on working all the same.”
“Better say nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!”
“and vinegar that makes them sour—and camomile that makes them bitter—and—and barley-sugar and such things that make children sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that: then they wouldn’t be so stingy about it, you know—”
“She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, ‘Which way? Which way?’, holding her hand on top of her head to feel which way it was growing; and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size. To be sure, this is what generally happens when one eats cake; but 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.”
“Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go round!”
“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’!”
“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’!”