Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

By Lewis Carroll

QUOTATION: You’re nothing but a pack of cards!
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. XII, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: Alice sighed wearily. “I think you might do something better with the time,” she said, “than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers.”
“If you knew Time as well as I do,” said the Hatter, “you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Alice.
“Of course you don’t,” said the Hatter, tossing his head contemptuously. “I dare say you never even spoke to Time!”
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. VII, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: “Who are you,” said the caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. 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 changed several times since then.”
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. V, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather 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.”
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British logician, author, humorist. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 6 (1865).

On the conventionality of language.

QUOTATION: “And what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. I, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: “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.”
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British logician, author, humorist. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 5 (1865).

On the psychological as criterion of modal truth (the possible is the conceivable; the impossible, the inconceivable; etc.).

QUOTATION: “A cat may look at a king,” said Alice. “I’ve read that in some book, but I don’t remember where.”
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. VIII, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. The White Rabbit, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. I, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tale,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. II, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: “Now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!” (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off).
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. II, Macmillan (1865).

QUOTATION: I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is “Who in the world am I?” Ah, that’s the great puzzle!
ATTRIBUTION: Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. II, Macmillan (1865).

[1] - [2] - [3] - [4]