Top 450 Lewis Carroll Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 4 of 10

151. “Every story has a moral you just need to be clever enough to find it – the Dutchess.”

— Lewis Carroll

152. “I pictured myself the Queen of Hearts as sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion – a blind and aimless Fury.”

— Lewis Carroll

153. “Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife – what’s the answer to that?”

— Lewis Carroll

154. “The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.”

— Lewis Carroll

155. “Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you.”

— Lewis Carroll

156. “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.”

— Lewis Carroll

157. “Take my friends and my home – as an outcast I’ll roam: Take the money I have in the bank: It is just what I wish, but deprive me of fish, And my life would indeed be blank.”

— Lewis Carroll

158. “How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale! How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly he spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in, With gently smiling jaws!”

— Lewis Carroll

159. “All in the golden afternoon Full leisurely we glide; For both our oars, with little skill, By little arms are plied, While little hands make vain pretence Our wanderings to guide.”

— Lewis Carroll

160. “There comes a pause, for human strength will not endure to dance without cessation; and everyone must reach the point at length of absolute prostration.”

— Lewis Carroll

161. “Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas – only I don’t exactly know what they are!”

— Lewis Carroll

162. “Reeling and Writhing of course, to begin with,? the Mock Turtle replied, ’and the different branches of arithmetic-ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision.”

— Lewis Carroll

163. “It’s too late to correct it: when you’ve once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences.”

— Lewis Carroll

164. “Once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.”

— Lewis Carroll

165. “It was for bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions.”

— Lewis Carroll

166. “Well, when one’s lost, I suppose it’s good advice to stay where you are until someone finds you.”

— Lewis Carroll

167. “When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don’t state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint.”

— Lewis Carroll

168. “The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. ‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked. ‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ’and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

— Lewis Carroll

169. “Then fill up the glasses as quick as you can, And sprinkle the table with buttons and bran: Put cats in the coffee, and mice in the tea – And welcome Queen Alice with thirty-times-three!”

— Lewis Carroll

170. “You’re thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk.”

— Lewis Carroll

171. “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.”

— Lewis Carroll

172. “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.”

— Lewis Carroll

173. “Child of the pure, unclouded brow and dreaming eyes of wonder.”

— Lewis Carroll

174. “She tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.”

— Lewis Carroll

175. “It’s a large as life and twice as natural.”

— Lewis Carroll

176. “Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense.”

— Lewis Carroll

177. “When you have made a thorough and reasonably long effort, to understand a thing, and still feel puzzled by it, stop, you will only hurt yourself by going on.”

— Lewis Carroll

178. “Some children have the most disagreeable way of getting grown-up.”

— Lewis Carroll

179. “A thick stick in one’s hand makes people respectful.”

— Lewis Carroll

180. “Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.”

— Lewis Carroll

181. “PLAIN SUPERFICIALITY is the character of a speech, in which any two points being taken, the speaker is found to lie wholly with regard to those two points.”

— Lewis Carroll

182. “All too soon will Childhood gay Realise Life’s sober sadness. Let’s be merry while we may, Innocent and happy Fay! Elves were made for gladness!”

— Lewis Carroll

183. “She’s stark raving mad!”

— Lewis Carroll

184. “Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!”

— Lewis Carroll

185. “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?”

— Lewis Carroll

186. “In proceeding to the dining-room, the gentleman gives one arm to the lady he escorts – it is unusual to offer both.”

— Lewis Carroll

187. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

— Lewis Carroll

188. “If only I could manage, without annoyance to my family, to get imprisoned for 10 years, “without hard labour,” and with the use of books and writing materials, it would be simply delightful!”

— Lewis Carroll

189. “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.”

— Lewis Carroll

190. “Unimportant, of course, I meant,′ the King hastily said, and went on to himself in an undertone, ‘important – unimportant – unimportant – important – ’ as if he were trying which word sounded best.”

— Lewis Carroll

191. “I don’t like belonging to another person’s dream.”

— Lewis Carroll

192. “Epithets, like pepper, Give zest to what you write; And if you strew them sparely, They whet the appetite: But if you lay them on too thick, You spoil the matter quite!”

— Lewis Carroll

193. “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 my life!”

— Lewis Carroll

194. “Every adventure requires a first step.”

— Lewis Carroll

195. “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.”

— Lewis Carroll

196. “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.”

— Lewis Carroll

197. “It is always allowable to ask for artichoke jelly with your boiled venison; however there are houses where this is not supplied.”

— Lewis Carroll

198. “Speak English!” said the Eaglet. “I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you do either!” And the Eaglet bend down its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds tittered audibly.”

— Lewis Carroll

199. “Magnitudes are algebraically represented by letter, men by men of letters, and so on.”

— Lewis Carroll

200. “One novel has been all my reading, Our Mutual Friend, one of the cleverest that Dickens has written.”

— Lewis Carroll