Top 450 Lewis Carroll Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “I should like the whole race of nurses to be abolished: children should be with their mother as much as possible, in my opinion.”

— Lewis Carroll

202. “I think I could, if I only know how to begin.”

— Lewis Carroll

203. “Can a Thing exist without any Attributes belonging to it?”

— Lewis Carroll

204. “Hold your tongue, Ma!′ said the young crab, a little snappishly. ‘You’re enough to try the patience of an oyster!”

— Lewis Carroll

205. “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”

— Lewis Carroll

206. “Once upon a time there were three little sisters,′ the Dormouse began in a great hurry; ‘and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well – ’ ‘What did they live on?’ said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.”

— Lewis Carroll

207. “No puedo volver al pasado porque entonces era una persona diferente.”

— Lewis Carroll

208. “Sentence first, verdict afterwards.”

— Lewis Carroll

209. “That’s the effect of living backwards,′ the Queen said kindly: ‘it always makes one a little giddy at first – ’ ‘Living backwards!’ Alice repeated in great astonishment. ‘I never heard of such a thing!’ ‘ – but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.’ ‘I’m sure MINE only works one way,’ Alice remarked. ‘I can’t remember things before they happen.’ ‘It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the Queen remarked.”

— Lewis Carroll

210. “Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread, with bitter tiding laden, shall summon to unwelcome bed a melancholy maiden! We are but older children, dear, who fret to find our bedtime near.”

— Lewis Carroll

211. “Curtsey while you’re thinking what to say. It saves time.”

— Lewis Carroll

212. “But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day, If your Snark be a Boojum! for then You will softly and suddenly vanish away, And never be met with again!”

— Lewis Carroll

213. “Thy loving smile will surely hail The love-gift of a fairy tale.”

— Lewis Carroll

214. “And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?”

— Lewis Carroll

215. “Yet what are all such gaieties to me whose thoughts are full of indices and surds?”

— Lewis Carroll

216. “And ever, as the story drained The wells of fancy dry, And faintly strove that weary one To put the subject by, “The rest next time – ” “It is next time!” The Happy voice cry. Thus grew the tale of Wonderland.”

— Lewis Carroll

217. “You’re enough to try the patience of an oyster!”

— Lewis Carroll

218. “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 –.”

— Lewis Carroll

219. “You could not see a cloud, because No cloud was in the sky: No birds were flying overhead – There were no birds to fly.”

— Lewis Carroll

220. “Well, “slithy” means “lithe and slimy.” “Lithe” is the same as “active.” You see it’s like a portmanteau – there are two meanings packed up into one word.”

— Lewis Carroll

221. “There are certain things – as, a spider, a ghost, The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three – That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most Is a thing they call the Sea.”

— Lewis Carroll

222. “I am fond of children – except boys.”

— Lewis Carroll

223. “You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic.”

— Lewis Carroll

224. “But then, shall I never get any older than I am now? That’ll be a comfort, one way – never to be an old woman – but then – always to have lessons to learn!”

— Lewis Carroll

225. “One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.”

— Lewis Carroll

226. “The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours.”

— Lewis Carroll

227. “Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish, game or any other dish? Who would not give all else for two pennyworth of beautiful soup?”

— Lewis Carroll

228. “What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators, Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?” So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply “They are merely conventional signs!”

— Lewis Carroll

229. “Tis a secret: none knows how it comes, how it goes: But the name of the secret is Love!”

— Lewis Carroll

230. “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.”

— Lewis Carroll

231. “It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; Alice heard it muttering to itself, “The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh, my dear paws! Oh, my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?” Alice.”

— Lewis Carroll

232. “But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ’we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

— Lewis Carroll

233. “I wish I dared dispense with all costume. Naked children are so perfectly pure and lovely; but Mrs. Grundy would be furious – it would never do.”

— Lewis Carroll

234. “Un-dish-cover the fish, or dishcover the riddle.”

— Lewis Carroll

235. “No use, no use!′ said the King. ‘She runs so fearfully quick. You might as well try to catch a Bandersnatch! But I’ll make a memorandum about her, if you like-she’s a dear good creature,’ he repeated softly to himself, as he opened his memorandum-book. ‘Do you spell “creature” with a double “e”?”

— Lewis Carroll

236. “Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!”

— Lewis Carroll

237. “The Red Queen shook her head. “You may call it ‘nonsense’ if you like,” she said, “but I’ve heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!”

— Lewis Carroll

238. “I said you LOOKED like an egg, Sir. And some eggs are very pretty, you know.”

— Lewis Carroll

239. “Tut, tut, child!’ said the Duchess. ‘Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.’ And she squeezed herself up closer to Alice’s side as she spoke.”

— Lewis Carroll

240. “The question is,’ said Alice, ’whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

— Lewis Carroll

241. “How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the doorway; ‘and even if my head would go through,’ thought poor Alice, ’it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.”

— Lewis Carroll

242. “I warn you, dear child. If I lose my temper, you lose your head. Understand?”

— Lewis Carroll

243. “Mine is a long and a sad tale!′ said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. ‘It is a long tail, certainly,’ said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; ’but why do you call it sad?”

— Lewis Carroll

244. “Two days wrong!” sighed the Hatter. “I told you butter wouldn’t suit the works!” he added, looking angrily at the March Hare. “It was the best butter,” the March Hare meekly replied.”

— Lewis Carroll

245. “I’ll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is – oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!”

— Lewis Carroll

246. “It’s jam every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you know.”

— Lewis Carroll

247. “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!”

— Lewis Carroll

248. “No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.” “Wouldn’t it, really?” said Alice, in a tone of great surprise. “Of course not,” said the Mock Turtle. “Why, if a fish came to me, and told me he was going on a journey, I should say ‘With what porpoise?”

— Lewis Carroll

249. “I don’t want to be anybody’s prisoner. I want to be a Queen.”

— Lewis Carroll

250. “When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark, And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark: But, when the tide rises and sharks are around, His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.”

— Lewis Carroll