Digital AliceEverything you need to know about Alice in Wonderland.
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AI-generated storybook illustration (2026-09-26): the storyteller's table. AI-generated dramatization art — not a historical depiction.

Sayings

The most quoted children's books in English — and every line below is verified word-for-word against the text. Book and chapter with each; no invented quotes, ever.

The use of a book

“and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 1 (“Down the Rabbit-Hole”) — Alice’s thought, on the riverbank, before the adventure begins.

Always late

“Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 1 — the White Rabbit, running past; the line that starts everything.

Curiouser

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 2 (“The Pool of Tears”) — Alice, growing enormous. “Curiouser” is not correct English, which is rather the point.

The good-advice paraphrase — read this one

She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it)

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 1 — the narrator, about Alice. Honesty note: the beloved form “I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it” is a popular paraphrase — it does not appear in the book. The wording above is what Carroll actually wrote, and this site quotes it instead.

Not herself

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir, because I’m not myself, you see.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 5 (“Advice from a Caterpillar”) — Alice, to the Caterpillar, trying to explain her size changes.

The great question

“Who are YOU?” said the Caterpillar.

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 5 — the Caterpillar’s opening line: the book’s central question in three words.

Which way to go

“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.

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6 (“Pig and Pepper”) — Alice and the Cheshire Cat.

We’re all mad here

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6 — the Cheshire Cat, directing Alice to the Hatter and the March Hare.

You must be

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6 — the Cheshire Cat, proving Alice’s madness to her satisfaction (if not to hers).

The unanswered riddle

“Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7 (“A Mad Tea-Party”) — the Hatter. The book gives no answer.

No idea

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter.

“Nor I,” said the March Hare.

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7 — the answer to the riddle, honestly admitted. Carroll later offered some possible answers in prefaces, but the book itself leaves it open.

Always tea-time

“It’s always six o’clock now.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7 — the Hatter, explaining why the tea things are never washed: Time quarreled with him, and stopped.

Off with their heads

“Off with their heads!” and the procession moved on

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 8 (“The Queen’s Croquet-Ground”) — the Queen of Hearts, more or less constantly.

Mind your own business

“If everybody minded their own business,” the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, “the world would go round a deal faster than it does.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6 — the Duchess, mid-moral.

Sense and sounds

“Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6 — the Duchess. (Carroll is parodying the proverb “take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.”)

Everything’s got a moral

“Tut, tut, child!” said the Duchess. “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9 (“The Mock Turtle’s Story”) — the Duchess, walking with her head on Alice’s shoulder.

The mustard-mine moral

And the moral of that is — “The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9 — the Duchess, on the large mustard-mine near here.

The Duchess’s masterpiece

“Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9 — the Duchess. Read it three times; it never quite parses, which is the joke.

Adventures first

“No, no! The adventures first,” said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: “explanations take such a dreadful time.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9 — the Gryphon, hurrying Alice to the Mock Turtle.

Why Tortoise

“We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9 — the Mock Turtle, on his schoolmaster. (Tortoise / taught us: the pun is the whole joke.)

How to tell a story

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

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12 (“Alice’s Evidence”) — the King, instructing the White Rabbit on reading the evidence. The court then does the opposite.

Sentence first

“No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first — verdict afterwards.”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12 — the Queen of Hearts, on trial procedure.

Nothing but a pack of cards

“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”

Reference: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12 — Alice, full-sized at last, to the whole court. The dream breaks; she wakes.

Jabberwocky (first verse)

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

Reference: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 1 (“Looking-Glass House”) — the poem Alice reads in the mirror. Humpty Dumpty explicates it in Chapter 6.

Contrariwise

“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.”

Reference: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 4 (“Tweedledum and Tweedledee”) — Tweedledee, demonstrating logic.

The Walrus’s agenda

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings —”

Reference: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 4 — “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” recited by Tweedledee.

Backwards memory

“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,” the Queen remarked.

Reference: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 5 (“Wool and Water”) — the White Queen, who lives backwards and remembers the future.

Six impossible things

“When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Reference: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 5 — the White Queen, advising Alice on believing impossible things.

What a word means

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

Reference: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 6 (“Humpty Dumpty”) — on the word “glory.”

Which is to be master

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”

Reference: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 6 — Humpty Dumpty’s whole philosophy of language in one line.

A note on famous “Carroll quotes” that aren’t

Several beloved lines attributed to Lewis Carroll online do not appear in either Alice book — among them “I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours” and “In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” This site quotes only what the text contains. If a line isn’t above, treat any attribution with suspicion.

Source notes

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