Since being published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has become one of the most famous works of fiction in history. The original story has never been out of print, and it’s nonsensical fantasy world with all its wonderful anthropomorphic characters has been adapted into the mediums of film, television, stage, opera and ballet, as well as a video game and a theme park ride!
On top of this, many of the best Alice in Wonderland quotes have become part of popular culture, too. Here we remember just a few of them, and celebrate how, over 150 years on, they are still as relevant as ever, from Alice’s existential crisis to the Hatter’s deconstruction of the English language itself.
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Alice Quotes
Cheshire Cat Quotes
Caterpillar Quotes
Mad Hatter Quotes
Alice Quotes from Alice in Wonderland
“But it’s no use now,” thought poor Alice, “to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!”
—Chapter 1, Down the Rabbit-Hole
Curiouser and curiouser!
—Chapter 2, The Pool of Tears
Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!
—Chapter 2, The Pool of Tears
It would have made a dreadfully ugly child; but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.
—Chapter 6, Pig and Pepper
It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
—Chapter 10, The Lobster Quadrille
Alice in Wonderland Cheshire Cat Quotes
“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 6, Pig and Pepper
“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.”
—Chapter 6, Pig and Pepper
Alice in Wonderland Caterpillar Quotes
Who are you?
—Chapter 5, Advice from a Caterpillar
The Caterpillar was the first to speak.
“What size do you want to be?” it asked.
“Oh, I’m not particular as to size,” Alice hastily replied; “only one doesn’t like changing so often, you know.”
“I don’t know,” said the Caterpillar.
—Chapter 5, Advice from a Caterpillar
Mad Hatter Quotes
Why is a raven like a writing-desk?
—Chapter 7, A Mad Tea-Party
“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
“I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least—at least I mean what I say—that’s the same thing, you know.”
“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”
—Chapter 7, A Mad Tea-Party
“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can’t take more.”
“You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”
—Chapter 7, A Mad Tea-Party
“Really, now you ask me,” said Alice, very much confused, “I don’t think—”
“Then you shouldn’t talk,” said the Hatter.
—Chapter 7, A Mad Tea-Party
If you loved these, you may also like our complete list of Winnie the Pooh quotes!
One quick disclaimer: you may read this list and become aghast that your personal favorite in Alice in Wonderland quotation is missing, and it pains us to tell you that this may be because it isn’t actually from Alice in Wonderland at all!
Over the decades many lines and idioms have been wrongfully attributed to the book or Lewis Carroll in general, such as “not all those who wander are lost”, which is actually from The Lord of the Rings, and “I’m not crazy. My reality is just different than yours”, often wrongly said to be from the Cheshire Cat. All of the quotes found here have been sourced directly from the book itself.