Nonsense

"Nothing is capable to being well set to music that is not nonsense."

"...do not be impressed by the imprint of a famous publishing house or the volumes of an author's publications. Bear in mind that Einstein needed only seventeen pages for his contribution which revolutionized physics, while there are graphomanics in asylums who use up mounds of paper every day. Remember that publishers want to keep the printing presses busy and do not object to nonsense if it can be sold."

"Undergraduates owe their happiness chiefly to the consciousness that they are no longer at school. The nonsense which was knocked out of them at school is all put gently back at Oxford or Cambridge."

"Nonsense, n. The objections that are urged against this excellent dictionary."

"To appreciate nonsense requires a serious interest in life."

"'T was brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe."

"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!'"

"There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind."

"If, therefore, nonsense is really to be the literature of the future, it must have its own version of the Cosmos to offer; the world must not only be tragic, romantic, and religious, it must be nonsensical also."

"Colourless green ideas sleep furiously."

"The nonsense that charms is close to sense."

"Nonsense is socially OK, but not stupidity."

"Nine–tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense."

"To die for faction is a common evil, But to be hanged for nonsense is the Devil."

"I've a great fancy to see my own funeral afore I die."

"Nonsense and beauty have close connections — closer connections than Art will allow."

"As Charms are nonsense, Nonsence is a Charm."

"Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense."

"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought."

"Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age."

"They beautifully illustrate the recipe for nonsense, which is: take something strange-looking, whose meaning is now forgotten, and liberally stir in imagination and superstition. In this respect the divinatory tarot is a paradigm of all superstitions and wonderfully illustrates humanity’s clever, ingenious, and intricate capacity for folly."

"For one of us was born a twin And not a soul knew which."

"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable."

"Alban was silent. It was difficult to talk to a man who spoke obvious nonsense."

"No one is exempt from talking nonsense. The great misfortune is to do it solemnly."

"I don't hold with all this washing. This modern Behind-the-ears nonsense."

"If others examined themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Get rid of it I cannot without getting rid of myself."

"The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense."

"Probably the best nonsense poetry is produced gradually and accidentally, by communities rather than by individuals."

"Any bit of nonsense can be computerized—astrology, biorhythms, the I Ching—but that doesn’t make the nonsense any more valid."

"Such a shuffleing, nonsensical paragraph was, I firmly believe, never put together since the invention of letters. That which I do not, and which, I think, no one can, understand. I shall not meddle with."

"A little nonsense now and then Is relished by the wisest men."

"A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."

"There is absolutely no common sense; it is common nonsense."

"A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not misbecome a monarch."

"Whenever you come near the human race, there’s layers and layers of nonsense."

"My aim is: to teach you to pass from a piece of disguised nonsense to something that is patent nonsense."

"He killed the noble Mudjokivis. Of the skin he made him mittens, Made them with the fur side inside, Made them with the skin side outside. He, to get the warm side inside, Put the inside skin side outside; He, to get the cold side outside, Put the warm side fur side inside. That's why he put the fur side inside, Why he put the skin side outside, Why he turned them inside outside."

"When Bryan O'Lynn had no shirt to put on, He took him a sheep skin to make him a' one. "With the skinny side out, and the wooly side in, 'Twill be warm and convanient," said Bryan O'Lynn."

"For blocks are better cleft with wedges, Than tools of sharp or subtle edges, And dullest nonsense has been found By some to be the most profound."

"To varnish nonsense with the charms of sound."

"Conductor, when you receive a fare, Punch in the presence of the passenjare. A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare, A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare, A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare, Punch in the presence of the passenjare!"

"Chorus Punch, brothers! punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare!"

"Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem: Dulce est desipere in loco."

"How pleasant to know Mr. Lear! Who has written such volumes of stuff! Some think him ill-tempered and queer, But a few think him pleasant enough."

"No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly."

"There's a skin without and a skin within, A covering skin and a lining skin, But the skin within is the skin without Doubled and carried complete throughout."

"From the Squirrel skin Marcosset Made some mittens for our hero. Mittens with the fur-side inside, With the fur side next his fingers So's to keep the hand warm inside."

"One bright day, in the middle of the night, two dead boys began to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policemen heard the noise, and came to save the two dead boys. If you don't believe me, well it's true, ask the blind man: he saw it all too."