Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is an English children’s novel by Lewis Carroll. Published in 1865 and illustrated by John Tenniel, Alice became one of the best-known works of English-language fiction.
The book follows the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole in the absurd world of Wonderland.
Translated into more than 90 languages, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland inspired numerous films, theater plays, ballets, theme parks, and board and video games. In 1871, Carroll published a sequel entitled Through the Looking-Glass.
And what is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
If you drink much from a bottle marked “poison,” it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
But it’s no use now, to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!Chapter II. The Poolof Tears, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
I wish I hadn’t cried so much! I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.Chapter II. The Poolof Tears, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
I’m older than you, and must know better.Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Speak English! I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and what’s more, I don’t believe you do either!Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
The best way to explain it is to do it.Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a LittleBill, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir, because I’m not myself, you see.Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
If everybody minded their own business, the world would go round a deal faster than it does.Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
If it had grown up, it would have been a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
“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.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin, but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
“Really, now you ask me,” said Alice, very much confused, “I don’t think-”
“Then you shouldn’t talk,” said the Hatter.Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Off with their heads!Chapter VIII. The Queen's Croquet-Ground, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Tut, tut, child! Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle's Story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
And the moral of that is – ‘Be what you would seem to be’ – or, if you’d like it put more simpty – ‘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.’Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle's Story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
I don’t see how he can ever finish, if he doesn’t begin.Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle's Story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.Chapter X. The Lobster-Quadrille, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.Chapter X. The Lobster-Quadrille, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
If you didn’t sign it, that only makes the matter worse. You must have meant some mischief, or else you’d have signed your name like an honest man.Chapter XII. Alice's Evidence, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.Chapter XII. Alice's Evidence, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
If there’s no meaning in it, that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any.Chapter XII. Alice's Evidence, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Sentence first – verdict afterwards.Chapter XII. Alice's Evidence, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!Chapter XII. Alice's Evidence, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)