"I think animals, treated as animals only, are very hard to depict comically. If animals could draw, and had a sense of humour, no doubt they could do it."

"Also another thing should be remembered: the narrator (the whole book will be autobiographical) must not appear in any of the illustrations."

"Never hurry yourself in the least over my work, I beg. But for the uncertainty of life, I would not ask for any continuity at all. Still, as neither of us is secure that his life will endure for a thousand long years, it will no doubt be advisable, when this picture is done and approved, to go on with the others whenever you have time and inclination."

"I specially wish my face to remain unknown to the public. I like my books to be known, of course: but personally I hope to remain in obscurity."

"No man should be hurried in his work, and an artist least of all."

"Do not, oh do not indulge such a wild idea as that a newspaper might err! If so, what have we to trust in this age of sham?"

"You are quite correct in saying it is a long time since you have heard from me: in fact, I find that I have not written to you since the 13th of last November. But what of that? You have access to the daily papers. Surely you can find out negatively, that I am all right! Go carefully through the list of bankruptcies; then run your eye down the police cases; and, if you fail to find my name anywhere, you can say to your mother in a tone of calm satisfaction, "Mr. Dodgson is going on well.""

"I could not well explain to you in my telegram, and had not the opportunity of doing so when we met, my reason for not undertaking, as you wished, to read the service. If I could have trusted myself to command my feelings and my voice, I should much have wished to read the service over the remains of my dear old uncle, whom I can never think of without the deepest affection and gratitude for his life-long kindness: but I did not feel I could safely do so. Otherwise, you may be sure I would have attempted it."

"I should like to see whether you can give me any further help as to my difficulties with "p" in such combinations as "impossible," "them patience," "the power," "spake," which combinations have lately beaten me when trying to read in the presence of others, in spite of my feeling quite cool, and trying my best to do it "on rule." These failures have rather deferred the hope I had formed of being very soon able to help in Church again, for if I break down in reading to only one or two, I should be all the worse, I fear, for the presence of a congregation."

"The truth is that Christ Church stands convicted of two unpardonable crimes - being great, and having a name. Such a place must always expect to find itself "a wide mark for scorn and jeers" - a target where the little and nameless may display their skill."

"Mathematics, though good-humouredly scorned by the biologists on account of the abnormal certainty of its conclusions, is still reckoned among the sciences."

"It used once to be thought indispensable for an educated man that he should be able to write his own language correctly, if not elegantly; it seems doubtful how much longer this will be taken as a criterion."

"Science ceased not to cry, "More gold, more gold!" And her three fair daughters, Chemistry, Biology and Physics (for the modern horse-leech is more prolific than in the days of Solomon), ceased not to plead, "Give, give!" And we gave; we poured forth our wealth like water (I beg her pardon, like H2O)."

"I hold so strongly the principle that it is the duty of a minority loyally to accept the decision of the majority, and to make no attempt to reverse it, that I should be very sorry to be believed to have acted otherwise."

"I do not say this without some experience of the way in which an outlay that seemed trifling at the time has afterwards involved us in expenses to which we should probably have demurred had we foreseen them."

"In answer to your question, "What did you mean the Snark was?" will you tell your friend that I meant that the Snark was a Boojum. I trust that she and you will now feel quite satisfied and happy."

"As to the meaning of the Snark? I'm very much afraid I didn't mean anything but nonsense!"

"I can guarantee that the books have no religious teaching whatever in them - in fact they do not teach anything at all."

"Praise isn't good for any of us; love is, and it would be a good thing if all the world were full of it; I like my books to be loved, and I like to think some children love me for the books, but I don't like them praised."

"I have very little time, now, fir society. (In fact, years ago, I began to decline all invitations.) The remaining years may be very few; and there is much work I still want to do."

"Don't forget the kiss to yourself, please; on the forehead is the best place."

"Do you know, I didn't even know of your existence? And it was such a surprise to hear that you had sent me your love! I felt just as if Nobody had suddenly run into the room, and given me a kiss! (That's the thing which happens to me, most days, just now.)"

"I really didn't dare to send it across the Atlantic - the whales are so inconsiderate. They'd have been sure to want to borrow it to show to the little whales, quite forgetting that the salt water would be sure to ruin it."

"A bantam-hen that wastes an egg, Is sure to get extremely poor And to be forced at last to beg For hard-boiled eggs from door to door."

"My dear Winnie, But you will be getting tired of this long letter: so I will bring it to an end."

"That anyone should look up to me, or think of asking my advice - well, it makes one feel humble, I think, rather than proud - humble to remember, while others think so well of me, what I really am, in myself."

"Oh woman, in our hours of ease A most unmitigated tease! When pain and anguish wring the brow, Doesn't she make a jolly row?"

"It is as much as I can do to find time to draw the corks of the bottles of beer I consume - and as for drawing children, it's out of the question!"

"And will you then resign yourself to Fate and me, to be taken either to a Matinée or to the General Strike Meeting of the London Omnibus Company, whichever I find to be most expedient?"

"I must find a few minutes to offer you the very sincere wishes of an old friend that your married life may be a bright and peaceful one, and that you and your chosen husband may love each other with a love second only to your love of God and far above your love of any other object. For that is, I believe, the only essential for a happily married life: All else is trivial compared with it."

"Do we decide questions, at all? We decide answers, no doubt; but surely the questions decide us?"

"I have a good many friends among governesses - having a sort of sympathy with them, as a more or less down-trodden race."

"Why she should die, Mr. Tennyson only knows! I suppose he would say, "It gives a roundness and finish to the thing." So it may; but a heroine who would poison herself for that must have an almost morbid fondness for roundness and finish."

"To say that I am quite well "goes without saying" with me. In fact my life is so strangely free from all trials & troubles, that I cannot doubt my own happiness is one of the "talents" entrusted to me to "occupy" with, till the Master shall return, by doing something to make "other" lives happy."

"I get about 2000 letters off, every year; but it isn't enough!"

"I shall be very glad to hear from you whenever you feel inclined to write, and from Sally, too, if she likes to try her had at writing. If she can't write with her hand, let her try with her foot."

"I may as well just tell you a few of the things I like, and then, whenever you want to give me a birthday present (my birthday comes once every seven years, on the ﬁfth Tuesday in April) you will know what to give me. Well, I like, very much indeed, a little mustard with a bit of beef spread thinly under it; and I like brown sugar - only it should have some apple pudding mixed with it to keep it from being too sweet; but perhaps what I like best of all is salt, with some soup poured over it. The use of the soup is to hinder the salt from being too dry; and it helps to melt it. Then there are other things I like; for instance, pins - only they should always have a cushion put round them to keep them warm. And I like two or three handfuls of hair; only they should always have a little girl’s head beneath them to grow on, or else whenever you open the door they get blown all over the room, and then they get lost, you know."

"Hateful Spider, (You are quite right. It doesn't matter a bit how one begins a letter, nor, for the matter of that, how one goes on with it, or even how one ends it - and it comes awfully easy, after a bit, to write coldly - easier, if possible, than to write warmly. For instance, I have been writing to the Dean, on College business, and began the letter "Obscure Animalcule," and he is foolish enough to pretend to be angry about it, and to say it wasn't a proper style, and that he will propose to the Vice-Chancellor to expel me from the University: and it is all your fault!)"

"I'm down here all alone, but as happy as a king - at least, as happy as some kings - at any rate I should think I'm about as happy as King Charles the First when he was in prison."

"As are the feelings of the old lady who, after feeding her canary and going out for a walk, finds the cage entirely filled on her return, with a live turkey - or of the old gentleman who, after chaining up a small terrier overnight, finds a hippopotamus raging round the kennel in the morning - such are my feelings when, trying to recall the memory of a small child who went to wade in the sea at Sandown, I meet with the astonishing photograph of the same microcosm suddenly expanded into a tall young person, whom I should be too shy to look at, even with the telescope which would no doubt be necessary to get any distinct idea of her smile, or at any rate to satisfy oneself whether she had eyebrows or not!"

"Of course you know what a Snark is? If you do, please tell me: for I haven't an idea what it is like."

"At last I met a wheelbarrow that I thought would attend to me, but I couldn't make out what was in it. I saw some features at first, then I looked through a telescope, and found it was a countenance; then I looked through a microscope, and found it was a face! I thought it was rather like me, so I fetched a large looking-glass to make sure, and then to my great joy I found it was me. We shook hands, and were just beginning to talk, when myself came up and joined us, and we had quite a pleasant conversation."

"What remarkably wicked children you are! I don't think you would find in all history, even if you go back to the times of Nero and Heliogabalus, any instance of children so heartless and so entirely reckless about returning story-books. Now I think of it, neither Nero nor Heliogabalus ever failed to return any story-book they borrowed. That is certain, because they never borrowed any, and that again is certain because there were none printed in those days."

"What an awful proposition! To drink tea from 4 to 6 would tax the constitution even of a hardened tea-drinker. For me, who hardly ever touch it, it would probably be fatal."

"As to dancing, my dear, I never dance, unless I am allowed to do it in my own peculiar way. There is no use trying to describe it: it has to be seen to be believed. The last house I tried it in, the floor broke through. But then it was a poor sort of floor — the beams were only six inches thick, hardly worth calling beams at all: stone arches are much more sensible, when any dancing, of my peculiar kind, is to be done. Did you ever see the Rhinoceros, and the Hippopotamus, at the Zoological Gardens, trying to dance a minuet together? It is a touching sight.Give any message from me to Amy that you think will be most likely to surprise her."

"My name is spelt with a "G," that is to say "Dodgson." Any one who spells it the same as that wretch (I mean of course the Chairman of Committees in the House of Commons) offends me deeply, and for ever! It is a thing I can forget, but never can forgive!"

"It is a great shock to my sensitive feelings to find that young ladies (of a certain age, and engaged) persist in signing themselves "very affectionately": it shows a grievous disregard of the very rudiments of conventionalism; but how can I help it? Against such mighty forces, what avail the feeble efforts of Man?"

"The great question is, do you generally think right or wrong? I should say (judging by the experience of many years) wrong, almost always."

"He thought you might be "thirty" not "thirteen." "No child of thirteen ever wrote such a hand as that" he cried. However I told him you certainly were a child, and that you had been to a very good school at the bottom of the sea."

"Some of my friends are business-men, and it is pleasant to see how methodical and careful they are in transacting any business matter. If, for instance, one of them were to write to me, asking me to look out for a place for a French governess in whom he was interested, I should be sure to admire the care with which he would give me her name in full (in extra-legible writing if it were an unusual name) as well as her address.Some of my friends are not men of business."