The books > What's your favorite quote from the books?

[LovelyLuna]

I love almost every part of the books, but my favorite line is "`If I'd been the whiting,' said Alice, whose thoughts were still running on the song, `I'd have said to the porpoise, "Keep back, please: we don't want YOU with us!''"

[Lenny]

Well, I obviously like the one in my signature

But I also really like the following passage from TTLG, where Alice, as a queen, wants to get indoors:

`Where's the servant whose business it is to answer the door?' she began angrily.
`Which door?' said the Frog.
Alice almost stamped with irritation at the slow drawl in which he spoke. `This door, of course!'
The Frog looked at the door with his large dull eyes for a minute: then he went nearer and rubbed it with his thumb, as if he were trying whether the paint would come off; then he looked at Alice.
`To answer the door?' he said. `What's it been asking of?' He was so hoarse that Alice could scarcely hear him.
`I don't know what you mean,' she said.
`I talks English, doesn't I?' the Frog went on. `Or are you deaf? What did it ask you?'
`Nothing!' Alice said impatiently. `I've been knocking at it!'
`Shouldn't do that -- shouldn't do that -- ' the Frog muttered. `Wexes it, you know.'

[The Cheshire Cat]

The Cheshire Cat; We're all mad here. I am mad, you are mad.
Alice; How do you know I'm mad?
The Cheshire Cat; You must be mad. Or else you wouldn't be here.

[Guest]

I'll tell thee everything I can:
There's little to relate.
I saw an aged aged man.
A-sitting on a gate.
"Who are you, aged man?" I said.
"And how is it you live?"
And his answer trickled through my head,
Like water through a sieve.

[gvignes]

If I am not mistaken, the three most often quoted texts in English Literature are, in alphabetical order):

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
Holy Bible (King James/Revised Standard Edition)
Shakespeare's Works

I have seen literally hunderds of Alice quotes in political and scientific works.

My favorite Alice quote is the classic "Curiouser and curiouser."

-G

[Hatta]

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

[Salvate]

my favorite is the whole chapter V particular the wors:

... `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 been changed several times since then.'
`What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. `Explain yourself!'
`I can't explain MYSELF, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, `because I'm not myself, you see.'

inscrutable these lines, aren't they?

[Lenny]

I just finished "All things Alice" by Linda Sunshine, which included a poem Carroll sent in a letter to a childfriend. I liked it so much I thought I'd share it with you:

No, no! I cannot write a line,
I cannot write a word:
The thoughts I think appear in ink
So shockingly absurd!

To wander in an empty cave
Is fruitless work, 'tis said:
What must it be for one like me
To wander in his head?

You say that I'm "to write a verse" --
O Maggie, put it quite
The other way, and kindly say
That I'm "averse to write."

[tiger lily]

Favorite lines ever is:

"But why don't you scream now? Alice asked, holding her hands ready to put over her ears agin.
"Why, I've done all the screaming already," said the Queen...

[Emuko]

"But it was the BEST butter.." ^_^

[Cheshire Puss]

`Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, `and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'

[Fireman Joe]

"the time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships, of sealing wax, of cabbages and kings..."
Best Alice poem, ever.
Of course, Jabberwocky is fantastic too:
"'Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. all mimsy were the borogoves and the mome raths outgrabe."

[In This Style 10/6]

I was definitely going to quote what Cheshire Puss did.

[AliceObsession37]

My favorite Alice quote is the classic "Curiouser and curiouser."

As is mine *points to siggie*

[jerseybelle]

"I could tell you my adventures--beginning from this morning," said Alice a little timidly; "but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." ...The Lobster Quadrille