text:
Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage (26 December, 1791 – 18 October, 1871) was an English mathematician and analytical philosopher who originated the idea of a programmable computer. Ada Lovelace worked for him.

Quotes

 * Mr. Herschel ... brought with him the calculations of the computers, and we commenced the tedious process of verification. After a time many discrepancies occurred, and at one point these discordances were so numerous that I exclaimed, "I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam," to which Herschel replied, "It is quite possible."
 * Babbage in November 1839, recalling events in 1821; quoted in Harry Wilmot Buxton and Anthony Hyman (1988), Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Late Charles Babbage. "Computers" here refers to people calculating by hand.

 * If this were true, the population of the world would be at a stand-still. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of death. I would suggest that the next edition of your poem should read: “Every moment dies a man, every moment 1 1/16 is born.” Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.
 * New Scientist, 4 December 1958, pg.1428.
 * Comment in response to Alfred Tennyson’s poem Vision of Sin, which included the line Every moment dies a man, // every moment one is born.

Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of its Causes (1830)
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of its Causes (1830)

 * It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that some portion of the neglect of science in England, may be attributed to the system of education we pursue. A young man passes from our public schools to the universities, ignorant of almost every branch of useful knowledge; and at these latter establishments … classical and mathematical pursuits are nearly the sole objects proposed to the student's ambition.
 * p. 3

 * If we look at the fact, we shall find that the great inventions of the age are not, with us at least, always produced in universities. The doctrines of "definite proportions," and of the "chemical agency of electricity,"—principles of a high order, which have immortalized the names of their discoverers,—were not produced by the meditations of the cloister: nor is it in the least a reproach to those valuable institutions to mention truths like these. Fortunate circumstances must concur, even to the greatest, to render them eminently successful. It is not permitted to all to be born, like Archimedes, when a science was to be created; nor, like Newton, to find the system of the world "without form and void;" and, by disclosing gravitation, to shed throughout that system the same irresistible radiance as that with which the Almighty Creator had illumined its material substance. It can happen to but few philosophers, and but at distant intervals, to snatch a science, like Dalton, from the chaos of indefinite combination, and binding it in the chains of number, to exalt it to rank amongst the exact. Triumphs like these are necessarily "few and far between;", nor can it be expected that that portion of encouragement, which a country may think fir to bestow on science, should be adapted to meet such instances. Too extraordinary to be frequent, they must be left, if they are to be encouraged at all, to some direct interference of the governemeɳt. The dangers to be apprehended from such a specific interference, would arise from one, or several of the following circumstance:—That class of society, from whom the government is selected, might not possess sufficient knowledge either to judge themselves, or know upon whose judgment to rely. Or the number of persons devoting themselves to science, might not be sufficiently large to have due weight in the expression of public opinion. Or, supposing this class to be large, it might not enjoy, in the estimation of the world, a sufficiently high character for independence. Should these causes concur in any country, it might become highly injurious to commit the encouragement of science to any department of the government. This reasoning does not appear to have escaped the penetration of those who advised the abolition of the late Board of Longitude. The question whether it is good policy in the government of a country to encourage science, is one of which those who cultivate it are not perhaps the most unbiased judges. In England, those who have hitherto pursued science, have in general no very reasonable grounds of complaint; they knew, or should have known, that there was no demand for it, that it led to little honour, and to less profit. That blame has been attributed to the government for not fostering the science of the country is certain; and, as far as regards past administrations, is, to a great extent, just; with respect to the present ministers, whose strength essentially depends on public opinion, it is not necessary that they should precede, and they cannot remain long insensible to any expression of the general feeling. But supposing science were thought of some importance by any administration, it would be difficult in the present state of things to do much in its favour; because, on the one hand, the higher classes in general have not a profound knowledge of science, and, on the other, those persons whom they have usually consulted, seem not to have given such advice as to deserve the confidence of government. It seems to be forgotten, that the money allotted by government to purposes of science ought to be expended with the same regard to prudence and economy as in the disposal of money in the affairs of private life.
 * p. 21

On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, 1832/1841
Charles Babbage, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1832)

 * The object of the present volume is to point out the effects and the advantages which arise from the use of tools and machines ;—to endeavour to classify their modes of action ;—and to trace both the causes and the consequences of applying machinery to supersede the skill and power of the human arm.
 * Preface

 * The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data.
 * p. 156. Ch. 17 "Of Price as Measured by Money"

 * The first application of this principle [of the division of labor] must have been made in a very early stage of society; for it must soon have been apparent that more comforts and conveniences could be acquired by one man restricting his occupation to the art of making bows, another to that of building houses, a third boats, and so on. This division of labor Into trades was not, however, the result of an opinion that the general riches of the community would be increased by such an arrangement: but it must have arisen from the circumstances, of each individual so employed discovering that he himself could thus make a greater profit of his labour than by pursuing more varied occupations.
 * p. 170. Ch 19. "On the division of labour"

 * It appears to me, that any explanation of the cheapness of manufactured articles, as consequent upon the division of labour, would be incomplete if the following principle were omitted to be stated.
 * That the master manufacturer, by dividing the work to be executed into different processes, each requiring different degrees of skill or of force, can purchase exactly that precise quantity of both which is necessary for each process; whereas, if the whole work were executed by one workman, that person must possess sufficient skill to perform the most difficult, and sufficient strength to execute the most laborious, of the operations into which the art is divided.
 * p. 175-6

 * We have already mentioned what may, perhaps, appear paradoxical to some of our readers, — that the division of labour can be applied with equal success to mental as to mechanical operations, and that it ensures in both the same economy of time.
 * p. 191; Ch. 20. "On the division of mental labour"

 * The establishment of "The Times" newspaper is an example, on a large scale, of a manufactory in which the division of labour, both mental and bodily, is admirably illustrated, and in which also the effect of domestic economy is well exemplified. It is scarcely imagined, by the thousands who read that paper in various quarters of the globe, what a scene of organized activity the factory presents during the whole night, or what a quantity of talent and mechanical skill is put in action for their amusement and information.
 * p. 270; Ch. 28 "Proper circumstances for the application of machinery."

The Exposition of 1851: Views Of The Industry, The Science, and the Government Of England, 1851

 * ENGLAND has invited the civilized world to meet in its great commercial centre; asking it, in friendly rivalry, to display for the common advantage of all, those objects which each country derives from the gifts of nature, and on which it confers additional utility by processes of industrial art. This invitation, universally accepted, will bring from every quarter a multitude of people greater than has yet assembled in any western city: these welcome visitors will enjoy more time and opportunity for observation than has ever been afforded on any previous occasion. The statesman and the philosopher, the manufacturer and the merchant, and all enlightened observers of human nature, may avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by their visit to this Diorama of the Peaceful Arts, for taking a more correct view of the industry, the science, the institutions, and the government of this country. One object of these pages is, to suggest to such inquirers the agency of those deeper seated and less obvious causes which can be detected only by lengthened observation, and to supply them with a key to explain many of the otherwise incomprehensible characteristics of England.
 * p. v-vi: Preface

 * The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped, and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country far more than the most splendid victories of successful war.
 * p. xii-xiii; Cited in: Samuel Smiles Industrial biography; iron-workers and tool-makers, (1864) p. 104

 * There are in the Exhibition some beautiful examples of such amongst the productions of other countries as well as of our own. They are made by the united labour of many women. The cost of a piece of lace will consist of:
 * The remuneration to the artist who designs the pattern.
 * The cost of the raw material.
 * The cost of the labour of a large number of women working on it for many months.
 * Let us compare this with the cost of a piece of statuary, which is undoubtedly of a much higher class of art ; it will consist of:
 * The remuneration to the artist who makes the model.
 * The cost of the raw material.
 * The cost of labour, by assistants in cutting the block to the pattern of the model.
 * Finishing the statue by the artist himself.
 * In lace making the skill of the artist is required only for the production of the first example. Every succeeding copy is made by mere labour: each copy may be considered as an individual, and will cost the same amount of time.
 * In sculpture the three first processes are quite analogous to those in lace-making. But the fourth process requires the taste and judgment of the artist. It is this which causes it to retain its rank amongst the fine arts, whilst lacemaking must still be classed amongst the industrial.
 * p. 49-50

 * In the making both of lace and of statues, the to the artists can only be reduced by producing a larger number of them through more extended education. The expense of the raw material is small in both. The expense of labour in lacemaking is very large, and it is perhaps considerable also in sculpture. The discovery of more convenient localities yielding marble, may make some diminution in its cost; and the improved manufacture of thread may slightly reduce the price of lace. A reduction in the price of labour may to a very moderate extent reduce the cost of the raw material of both. But it is evident that any very great reduction is not to be expected. Let us now contrast this possible reduction with the past history of some industrial art. The plain  made at, called patent net, will supply us with a good example. In the year 1813 that lace was sold in the piece at the rate of 218. a-yard. At the present time lace of the same kind, but of a better quality, is sold under the same circumstances at 3d. per yard. Thus, in less than forty years the price of the industrial produce has diminished to one eighty-fourth part of its original price.
 * p. 51-52

 * Machinery of a very beautiful kind has been contrived for copying accurately, on a reduced or an enlarged scale, both medals and statues. The itself could not be justly excluded from a purely industrial exhibition, if, placed in the centre of a series diminishing on the one side to a statuette of a foot high, and increasing on the other to a figure double her own height. Such a series, though fairly introduced as an illustration of industrial art, would, indeed, itself be highly interesting to the fine arts, as exhibiting the effect of change of magnitude, when the proportions remain identical.
 * p. 52-53

 * The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines... The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at the head of the.
 * p. 173; As cited in: Samuel Smiles (1864) Industrial biography; iron-workers and tool-makers, p. 245

 * It is not uninteresting to observe in society the opinions of its different classes respecting honours conferred on science. Military and naval men, especially the most eminent, feel that genius is limited by no profession, and themselves sympathizing with it, would gladly hail as brothers in the same distinction, the philosopher and the poet. With lawyers the case is reversed ; genius dwells not in their courts : industry and acuteness, monopolised by one absorbing professional subject, exclude larger views; and ribbons not being amongst the honoraria of their own profession, they reprobate their application to science. To this there are, however, some noble exceptions. Amongst the brightest ornaments, of their own profession, men are to be found of larger experience and more extended views than it often produces, who are themselves qualified to have become discoverers in other sciences. It is much to be regretted when such powers are applied to the mere administration, instead of to the reformation, of the laws of their country.
 * p. 224

 * It is difficult to pronounce on the opinion of the ministers of our Church as a body: one portion of them, by far the least informed, protests against anything which can advance the honour and the interests of science, because, in their limited and mistaken view, science is adverse to religion. This is not the place to argue that great question. It is sufficient to remark, that the best-informed and most enlightened men of all creeds and pursuits, agree that truth can never damage truth, and that every truth is allied indissolubly by chains more or less circuitous with all other truths; whilst error, at every step we make in its diffusion, becomes not only wider apart and more discordant from all truths, but has also the additional chance of destruction from all rival errors.
 * p. 225

 * The Church has been reproached with endeavouring to appropriate to itself all those professorships in our Universities which are connected with science: it is however certain that the larger portion of these ill-remunerated offices have been filled by clergymen.
 * p. 225

 * But a much graver charge attaches itself, if not to our clergy, certainly to those who have the distribution of ecclesiastical patronage. The richest Church in the world maintains that its funds are quite insufficient for the purposes of religion and that our working clergy are ill-paid, and church accommodation insufficient. It calls therefore upon the nation to endow it with larger funds, and yet, while reluctant to sacrifice its own superfluities, it approves of its rich sinecures being given to reward, — not the professional service of its indefatigable parochial clergy, but those of its members who, having devoted the greater part of their time to scientific researches, have political or private interest enough to obtain such advancement. But this mode of rewarding merit is neither creditable to the Church nor advantageous to science. It tempts into the Church talents which some of its distinguished members maintain to be naturally of a disqualifying, if not of an antagonistic nature to the pursuits of religion; whilst, on the other hand, it makes a most unjust and arbitrary distinction amongst men of science themselves. It precludes those who cannot conscientiously subscribe to Articles, at once conflicting and incomprehensible, from the acquisition of that preferment and that position in society, which thus in many cases, must be conferred on less scrupulous, and certainly less distinguished inquirers into the works of nature. As the honorary distinctions of orders of knight hood are not usually bestowed on the clerical profession, its members generally profess to entertain a great contempt for them, and pronounce them unfit for the recognition of scientific merit.
 * p. 225-226

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

 * On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
 * Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), ch. 5 "Difference Engine No. 1"

 * The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of mechanism.
 * Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), ch. 8 "Of the Analytical Engine"

 * As soon as an Analytical Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of the science. Whenever any result is sought by its aid, the question will then arise — by what course of calculation can these results be arrived at by the machine in the shortest time?
 * Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), ch. 8 "Of the Analytical Engine"

 * It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands of persons, and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their time, destroyed by organ-grinders and other similar nuisances.
 * Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), ch. 26 "Street Nuisances"

 * There remains a third source from which we arrive at the knowledge of the existence of a supreme Creator, namely, from an examination of his works. Unlike transmitted testimony, which is weakened at every stage, this evidence derives confirmation from the progress of the individual as well as from the advancement of the knowledge of the race. Almost all thinking men who have studied the laws which govern the animate and the inanimate world around us, agree that the belief in the existence of one Supreme Creator, possessed of infinite wisdom and power, is open to far less difficulties than the supposition of the absence of any cause, or of the existence of a plurality of causes.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", The Belief In The Creator From His Works, p. 400-401

 * In the works of the Creator ever open to our examination, we possess a firm basis on which to raise the superstructure of an enlightened creed. The more man inquires into the laws which regulate the material universe, the more he is convinced that all its varied forms arise from the action of a few simple principles. These principles themselves converge, with accelerating force, towards some still more comprehensive law to which all matter seems to be submitted. Simple as that law may possibly be, it must be remembered that it is only one amongst an infinite number of simple laws: that each of these laws has consequences at least as extensive as the existing one, and therefore that the Creator who selected the present law must have foreseen the consequences of all other laws. The works of the Creator, ever present to our senses, give a living and perpetual testimony of his power and goodness far surpassing any evidence transmitted through human testimony. The testimony of man becomes fainter at every stage of transmission, whilst each new inquiry into the works of the Almighty gives to us more exalted views of his wisdom, his goodness, and his power.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", The Belief In The Creator From His Works, p. 402

 * In the course of my inquiries, I met with the work upon the Trinity, by Dr. Samuel Clarke. This I carefully examined, and although very far from being satisfied, I ceased from further inquiry. This change arose probably from my having acquired the much more valuable work of the same author, on the Being and Attributes of God. This I studied, and felt that its doctrine was much more intelligible and satisfactory than that of the former work. I may now state, as the result of a long life spent in studying the works of the Creator, that I am satisfied they afford far more satisfactory and more convincing proofs of the existence of a supreme Being than any evidence transmitted through human testimony can possibly supply.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", The Athanasian Creed, p. 403

 * The true value of the Christian religion rests, not upon speculative views of the Creator, which must necessarily be different in each individual, according to the extent of the knowledge of the finite being, who employs his own feeble powers in contemplating the infinite : but it rests upon those doctrines of kindness and benevolence which that religion claims and enforces, not merely in favour of man himself but of every creature susceptible of pain or of happiness.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", The Basis Of Virtue Is Truth, p. 404-405

 * It has always occurred to my mind that many difficulties touching Miracles might be reconciled, if men would only take the trouble to agree upon the nature of the phenomenon which they call Miracle. That writers do not always mean the same thing when treating of miracles is perfectly clear; because what may appear a miracle to the unlearned is to the better instructed only an effect produced by some unknown law hitherto unobserved. So that the idea of miracle is in some respect dependent upon the opinion of man. Much of this confusion has arisen from the definition of Miracle given in Hume's celebrated Essay, namely, that it is the "violation of a law of nature." Now a miracle is not necessarily a violation of any law of nature, and it involves no physical absurdity. As Brown well observes, "the laws of nature surely are not violated when a new antecedent is followed by a new consequent ; they are violated only when the antecedent, being exactly the same, a different consequent is the result;" so that a miracle has nothing in its nature inconsistent with our belief of the uniformity of nature. All that we see in a miracle is an effect which is new to our observation, and whose cause is concealed. The cause may be beyond the sphere of our observation, and would be thus beyond the familiar sphere of nature; but this does not make the event a violation of any law of nature. The limits of man's observation lie within very narrow boundaries, and it would be arrogance to suppose that the reach of man's power is to form the limits of the natural world. The universe offers daily proof of the existence of power of which we know nothing, but whose mighty agency nevertheless manifestly appears in the most familiar works of creation. And shall we deny the existence of this mighty energy simply because it manifests itself in delegated and feeble subordination to God's omnipotence?
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix: Miracle. Note (A)

 * There is nothing in the nature of a miracle that should render it incredible: its credibility depends upon the nature of the evidence by which it is supported. An event of extreme probability will not necessarily command our belief unless upon a sufficiency of proof; and so an event which we may regard as highly improbable may command our belief if it is sustained by sufficient evidence. So that the credibility or incredibility of an event does not rest upon the nature of the event itself, but depends upon the nature and sufficiency of the proof which sustains it.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix: Miracle. Note (A), p. 88

 * Mill, in speaking of Hume's celebrated principle, "that nothing is credible which is contradictory to experience, or at variance with the laws of nature," calls it a very plain and harmless proposition, being, in effect, nothing more than that whatever is contradictory to a complete induction is incredible. Admit the existence of a Deity, and the possibility of a miracle is the natural consequence. No doubt our examination of the evidence which sustains an unusual phenomenon should be most carefully conducted; but we must not measure the credibility or incredibility of an event by the narrow sphere of our own experience, nor forget that there is a Divine energy which overrides what we familiarly call the laws of nature.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix, p. 488

 * We must be careful to discriminate between our own incapacity to test truth and the necessary improbability of an event. It is plain that from our ignorance of the remote spheres of God's action we cannot judge of His works removed from our experience; but a fact is not necessarily doubtful because it cannot be reached by our ordinary senses. To recapitulate, we may lay down the following propositions: 1. That there is no real physical distinction between miracles and any other operations of the Divine energy : that we regard them differently is because we are familiar with one order of events and not the other. 2. There is nothing incredible in a miracle, and the credibility of a miraculous event is to be measured only by the evidence which sustains it. And although the extraordinary character of a phenomenon may render the event itself improbable, it does not, therefore, necessarily render it either incredible or untrue.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix, p. 489

 * If we define a miracle as an effect of which the cause is unknown to us, then we make our ignorance the source of miracles! and the universe itself would be a standing miracle. A miracle might be perhaps defined more exactly as an effect which is not the consequence or effect of any known laws of nature.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix, p. 489

 * Miracles may be, for anything we know to the contrary, phenomena of a higher order of God's laws, superior to, and, under certain conditions, controlling the inferior order known to us as the ordinary laws of nature.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix, p. 490

 * The foundation of all religion is the belief in a God, and that He exists in certain relation with His creatures. Such belief necessarily leads to the consciousness of some obligation towards the Deity ; and this consciousness suggests the duty of worship ; and in the selection of the form of this worship originates the various creeds which distinguish and distract mankind. There is a sort of geography of religion ; and I regret to think that the majority of mankind take their creed from the clime in which they happen to be born ; and that many, and not an inconsiderable portion of mankind, suffer the sacred torch to burn out altogether, in their contact with the world, and then vainly imagine that they can recover the sacred fire by striking a park out of dogmatic theology.
 * "Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix: Religion, Note (B) pp. 491-492

Attributed

 * Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.
 * Quoted in William Kenneth Richmond (1969), The Education Industry.
 * May be modern paraphrase of "the errors which arise from the absence of facts" quote above.

 * Propose to any Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible; if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless because it will not slice a pineapple. Impart the same principle or show the same machine to an American or to one of our Colonists and you will observe that the whole effort of his mind is to find some new application of the principle, some new use for the instrument.
 * Quoted in Richard H. Babbage (1948), "The Work of Charles Babbage", Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University, vol. 16 cited to Charles' The Exposition of 1851 (but see Talk page for problems with this citation)
 * Excerpt listed online, here: http://www.ed-thelen.org/bab/bab_philosopher.html

Quotes about Charles Babbage

 * We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.
 * Ada Lovelace, Notes on the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage

 * Babbage was one of the founders of the Cambridge Analytical Society whose purpose he stated was to advocate "the principles of pure d-ism as opposed to the dof-age of the university.
 * W. W. Rouse Ball, History of Mathematics, (London, 1901), p. 451

 * The Economy of Manufactures established Babbage's position as a political economist and its influence is well attested, particularly on John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Babbage's pioneering discussion of the effect of technical development on the size of industrial organizations was followed by Mill and the prediction of the continuing increase in the size of factories, often cited as one of Marx's successful economic predictions, in fact derives from Babbage's analysis... Babbage wrote with many talents: a natural philosopher and mechanical engineer, his knowledge of factory and workshop practice was encyclopaedic; he was well-versed in relevant business practice; and he was without rival as a mathematician among contemporary British political economists.
 * Anthony Hyman. Charles Babbage: pioneer of the computer. Princeton University Press, 1982. p.103–4

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Charles Babbage


text:
User:Liftarn

"Nobody ever quotes me." // Fred, the barber

I'm active in both English and Swedish Wikipedia.

"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps himself in the Constitution than someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps himself in the flag!" // Unknown

Liftarn

title: User:Liftarn


text:
Talk:Bill Gates

640 k/1 MB
The source of "640 kB ought to be enough for anybody" may have actually been "No one will need more than 637 kB of memory for a personal computer", and it may have been said in the early 1970s. // Liftarn

 * The earliest mention of a version of this quote on usenet seems to be a signature by Evan Champion in 1992-07-25 (News:2175291@overmind.citadel)

 * LX 2.1 TD . "640 k ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981

 * —This unsigned comment is by 130.225.221.142 (talk • contribs) at 14:50, 11 December 2004 (UTC).

 * What about "DOS addresses only 1 Megabyte of RAM because we cannot imagine any applications needing more." - is it sourced? —This unsigned comment is by 84.142.227.223 (talk • contribs) 16:22, 8 June 2005 (UTC).

I've heard someone saying that this sentence was actually said by an IBM engineer. Unfortunately I don't remember where I read it and neither the engineer's name. Do you know something about this? —This unsigned comment is by Tcp-ip (talk • contribs) at 22:35, 6 February 2006 (UTC).

 * "640K ought to be enough for anybody" *was* *definitely* said by Bill Gates. He said it at an early microcomputer trade show in Seattle in mid 1981.  It is the Microsoft PR machine that has tried over the years to rewrite history and pretend that Gates never made this asinine comment. —This unsigned comment is by 216.150.131.207 (talk • contribs) at 15:22, 21 November 2007 (UTC).

 * Oh, well, then that proves it. ... Or rather, it proves that there's just one more anonymous moron on the internet. —This unsigned comment is by 96.247.231.243 (talk • contribs) at 18:14, 14 July 2014 (UTC).

 * The comment wasn't asinine. It is very easy to look back and say that it was stupid, but at the time, it was a very reasonable statement. Can you think of any reason for personal computers to have terabytes of RAM? Probably not. But maybe in 15 years, there will be a reason, and most PCs will have terabytes of RAM. The only reason you probably wouldn't make the same mistake right now and say, "no one will ever need terabytes of memory" is because you've already seen how predicting the future worked out for Bill Gates and have learned from his mistake. —This unsigned comment is by 2620:0:102f:1100:d267:e5ff:fef1:a0bc (talk • contribs) at 01:58, 13 July 2012 (UTC).

 * The reason Gates and Microsoft have tried to downplay this quote (and yes, he did say it) is not because it is or is not asinine, but because it proves that Gates is not, and has never been, the "visionary" he wants the world to see him as. 173.68.125.114 22:06, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

 * "yes, he did say it" He specifically denies it, and nobody has provided any documentation that he ever did. The fact that it's been attributed to various people makes it even more suspect. Gbisaga (talk) 17:57, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

I'm inclined to agree with the above comment, since we know Bill also said "we will never make a 32-bit operating system". Given that things were moving from 8 bit to 16 bit at the time, the eventual transition of desktop CPUs to 32-bit and beyond should have been just as obvious. But unless you can find a reliable citation, I don't think it should be on the page.. -- zcat —This unsigned comment is by 203.173.163.127 (talk • contribs) at 00:09, 29 July 2008 (UTC).

 * Citation - Page 303, right margin of;

 * The Unauthorized Guide to Windows 98
 * By Paul McFedries
 * Published by Que Publishing, 1999
 * ISBN 0789719126, 9780789719126
 * 784 pages

 * —This unsigned comment is by 140.168.69.130 (talk • contribs) at 04:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC).

 * This is not a reference, this is the simply the same misquote immortalised in print -- zcat 118.90.73.183 20:08, 26 January 2010 (UTC))

If he said it, come up with ANY piece of evidence. Ofcourse, he never said it, so no one can come up with any. —This unsigned comment is by 69.207.208.75 (talk • contribs) at 08:48, 29 March 2009 (UTC).

 * He did not say it, he says it himself: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484 :) --normis —This unsigned comment is by 91.188.51.136 (talk • contribs) at 08:10, 8 February 2010 (UTC).

 * The "640 kB is enough" is a myth attributed to Gates. The blame for this should actually be placed at IBM's feet, because the 640 kB limit was an architectural limitation imposed by IBM, who decided to load drivers in high mem starting at those addresses, in effect imposing a hardware ceiling on the memory available for OS and apps. —This unsigned comment is by 124.148.147.118 (talk • contribs) at 19:12, 7 April 2011 (UTC).

I believe this is actually a result of how the 8086 and friends handled segmentation (and of the physical number of address lines present on these processors before the "A20 gate" became a thing). —This unsigned comment is by 76.88.85.148 (talk • contribs) at 07:21, 26 September 2014 (UTC).

 * In Wired, 32-bit per se, in not mentioned, but Gates mentions indirectly here with 16-bit and 640K. Should the sourced (from here at some point?) "never make a 32-bit operating system" be mentioned as misattributed or not? Comp.arch (talk) 11:55, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Do you guys think that maybe it was just an assessment of the current situation at that time and not a prediction of what things would be in the future? --99.24.181.162 20:34, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

 * What part of "he never said it" don't you understand? -- 98.171.173.90 18:47, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

 * "He never said it" is easy to understand; it simply isn't true. He said it.  He's worked hard to try to erase it from the world's memory but he said it. —This unsigned comment is by 2600:2c00:9000:1010::2d (talk • contribs) at 22:25, 16 January 2017 (UTC).

 * Proving something from 1981 will be difficult when iphone evidence is demanded. —This unsigned comment is by 192.47.255.254 (talk • contribs) at 22:09, 21 September 2018 (UTC).
 * What part of "you say 'He never said it' is just as much proof as someone saying 'he said it'" don't you understand?
 * This site https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/ seems to have done some thorough investigation. They still conclude the quote isn't provable, and I concur. It is, however, remarkable, that there seems to be enough documented proof Bill Gates heavily underestimated the development of memory demands. And I really like that in the very same often quoted interview, where he denies ever having said that 637k thing, he later remarks that "Probably the fastest conventional telephone dial-up modem you'll ever have is 28.8.". 194.76.232.147 09:11, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Removed what might be a translation
Someone had posted the following statement which I have removed from the article.
 * "Kommt ein Mann in den Steg Computer und sagt: "Ich hätte gerne den fettesten, gröbsten Prozessor den Sie haben!" Sagt der Verkäufer: "Tut mir leid, die Lorenz ist gerade in der Therapie"'''
 * Source: Richli at Work by Adrian Eggmann (2004), ISBN 0914845713

This may or may not be a quote of Bill Gates translated into German. Statements originating in German or any other language are welcome here, preferably accompanied by an English translation, but translations of statements into German, if that is what this is, must await the development of a German language Wikiquote. There has been growing interest expressed in creating such Wikiquotes for other languages, and this statement perhaps would belong there. ~ Kalki 12:19, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * It's a bad joke in German, probably of a Swiss. Definitely not a quote of Bill Gates. —This unsigned comment is by 193.134.254.145 (talk • contribs) at 10:00, 20 January 2005 (UTC).

Source
Did Bill Gates truly say "The internet is just a passing fad" in a Microsoft press conference in late 1995? I find no source using Google. —This unsigned comment is by 216.229.224.153 (talk • contribs) 15:33, 28 October 2004 (UTC).

 * There is also this famous "The Internet? We are not interested in it"
 * -- Bill Gates, 1993
 * that keeps just appearing in a lot of forum signatures. Source Anyone? —This unsigned comment is by 85.74.48.4 (talk • contribs) at 09:55, 6 January 2006 (UTC).

 * In 1995, while living in Washington State and promoting that the Internet is the future ... Bill Gates was publicly denouncing the web as just a fad and costing many companies financial difficulties in the Northwest, including, but not limited to, Zipee Corp, the Plaintiff in a lawsuit with the United States Postal Service on the domain postal-service.com in which the case has become the foundation of Internet law around the world !

 * - David Apperson, Internet Senior Architect 1995 - 2004 —This unsigned comment is by 63.225.87.219 (talk • contribs) at 00:56, 19 September 2014 (UTC).

I think 1993 is too early. I distinctly recall Gates' statement that Microsoft was not interested in 'the internet phenomenon', or otherwise downplayed it's significance, about 6 months prior to releasing IE (1995) as a competitor to Netscape. This was obviously a calculated position to take in public prior to releasing IE. I'd place it late 1994, early 1995. —This unsigned comment is by 69.211.1.92 (talk • contribs) at 01:41, 29 November 2006 (UTC).

 * 1995 quote: No reason to think this is genuine. In August Gates wrote a memo (introduced as evidence in the antitrust case) titled "The Internet Tidal Wave" that very clearly recognized the internet's significance. Windows 95, released in August, included Internet Explorer 1.0 which had been licensed earlier (and before that Microsoft had tried but failed to license the Booklink browser).

 * 1993 quote: Often appears alongside established phony Gates quotations like "640kB should be enough" and "Be nice to nerds." However, it is not impossible nor would it be terribly surprising if he said it. 1993 was the year that NCSA Mosaic was released, and before that the Internet wasn't much to look at for an end-user.

 * Anything Gates said about the internet at that time should be considered in the context that Microsoft was doing active development on networking in the early 1990s but not necessarily internet networking. Microsoft's awakening to the Internet as not just an interesting technology but a profitable one (which matters to Gates) is documented in Renegades of the Empire and Breaking Windows. w:User:Gazpacho 07:12, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

 * (PS: what do you mean by "distinctly recall"? Do you recall hearing him say it? Reading about him saying it? In what kind of source?) —This unsigned comment is by 24.17.110.177 (talk • contribs) at 07:23, 28 December 2006 (UTC).

 * He wrote in his autobiography user:12.9.138.10 21:12, 25 March 2013

 * The Internet Tidal Wave is available online. --Omnipaedista (talk) 00:47, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

Removal
Removed

 * "Bill can't make competitive software but he can play Monopoly well." Groklaw.net blog

Maybe someone can explain the significance of this quote to me or the importance of who's saying it. Until then I say leave it cut least we have quotes from everyone with a livejournal with an opinion of Bill Gates. scy7he —This unsigned comment is by 68.142.12.252 (talk • contribs) at 13:26, 23 June 2005 (UTC).

"Linux best OS ever!"
http://bbspot.com/News/2001/06/gates.html May I add it? —This unsigned comment is by 201.22.84.59 (talk • contribs) at 01:59, 11 August 2006 (UTC).

 * No, that's a fake news story. 24.238.166.85 02:27, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

"At a Mac conference in the eighties"
I'm unfimiliar with Wikiquote's policies, but if it were an article on Wikipedia, I would remove anything using this as a "source". w:User:RN —This unsigned comment is by 67.185.158.12 (talk • contribs) at 01:56, 26 August 2006 (UTC).
 * The sourcing is inadequate here, but I have seen the video of this statement, I believe in an early Apple promotion video, when Gates actually was working with Apple in developing Word for the Mac, and will try to get more information on it, if I can, within the next few hours. ~ Shadow 02:48, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I intend to keep looking between other tasks, but I've not yet found definite sourcing of where the original clip is from, or what date it was, though I did find 2 video clips on Youtube of Gates making the statement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZfuEHAZerY & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtba2GkVOII —This unsigned comment is by Shadow (talk • contribs) at 04:58, 26 August 2006 (UTC).

this one says circa 1984 "around the time of the introduction of the macintosh", but it still isn't very specific. Most places give seperate dates which isn't too impressing, and the German wikiquote says a 1984 mac conference as well but no source either (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates). A slashdot comment says 1984 as well. So, that's what I found after checking all of the googles for
 * "the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard"

and
 * "And the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard"

If this were a real quote, I would be expecting someone like forbes or time magazine... hopefully someone's search goes better then mine :). w:User:RN —This unsigned comment is by 67.185.132.50 (talk • contribs) at 17:55, 26 August 2006 (UTC).

Sourcing
Gates is a sufficiently public figure, has left a big enough paper trail, and has inspired enough bogus quotes, that I think it's reasonable to insist on very specific citations for anything that gets added here. Not just "someone posted it on the internets." w:User:Gazpacho 09:15, 30 August 2007 (UTC) —This unsigned comment is by 24.16.41.121 (talk • contribs) at 09:15, 30 August 2007 (UTC).
 * It violates the "no original research" policy to suggest that
 * a) All collections of humorous material, even those from Oxford University press, are unreliable; please provide a source if you wish to assert that;
 * b) Because it is your personal opinion that Bill Gates said something, therefore he could not have done so; please provide a source if you wish to assert that.
 * --Cato 18:19, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree. I mean, come on - "In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and fished out listings of their operating system."  A fairly obvious troll.  --199.89.64.178 21:53, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Dumpster diving quote
The dumpster diving quote (the one that starts "the best way to prepare") has a longer quote, which includes valuable extra information, in this slashdot comment. Could somebody confirm that this quote is true and then include it? --212.130.183.202 10:24, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

 * The dumpster diving quote is from the book "Programmers at Work: Interviews With 19 Programmers Who Shaped the Computer Industry", published by Microsoft Press. I've seen enough different people claim to have actually got the book and found the quote that I don't believe they could all be making it up, EG the above posting on slashdot or this;

 * http://danbricklin.com/log/2004_03_11.htm#paw

 * This occurrence is particularly interesting because Dan Bricklin was one of the 19 programmers interviewed in the book and in a scan of the (hardback) cover, his photo appears on the top left.

 * If you really want to be sure, you could just buy the book yourself from Amazon. There are four copies available right now. —This unsigned comment is by 203.109.205.86 (talk • contribs) at 02:26, 11 March 2008 (UTC).

Factoring large primes?
One of the Gates quotes I see most often is the (silly, no doubt) mistake regarding factoring. From Wikipedia's entry on The Road Ahead:

 * "The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." (p.265)

Is this quote omitted because it came from a multi-author book? If so, I can understand the reasoning: who knows who wrote it? If not, surely this should be included. 207.172.209.70 03:18, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Limit of Quotes
Just to let everyone know this page has too many quotes.(StarWarsFanBoy 00:58, 5 December 2009 (UTC))

 * "You can quote me on this . . . " —This unsigned comment is by 66.161.247.98 (talk • contribs) at 16:36, 2 March 2011 (UTC).
 * Can I add Bill Gates Quotes? Like we have collect very powerful quotes of him! If your permit me i'll add to External Links. 2401:4900:190A:3A4B:3551:7E94:82C7:C3B7 23:10, 24 November 2021 (UTC)

What about "The Road Ahead"'s dismissal of the internet?
Not putting it directly on the page (yet)

He released a book in November 1995 called "The Road Ahead", which largely dismissed the internet (mentioning it briefly) and the web, seeing it as a mere stepping stone towards the "real" "information superhighway". All the while trying to use Windows 95 to push "The Microsoft Network" ("MSN"), at the time a proprietary online service to compete with the likes of Compuserve and AOL.

Gates realized that the internet was gaining traction, so one month after it hit the stores MS's strategies were allegedly realigned, and a "Completely Revised and Up-to-Date" edition of "The Road Ahead" came out in October 1996.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead - note also Time Magazine's comment from December 1995 about MS's change of strategy, at the bottom...

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Ahead-Completely-Up-Date/dp/0140260404

83.242.11.22 07:20, 31 March 2010 (UTC) gautelund

 * When you're ready to add the quotation to the page, make sure you actually have a quotation, not just circumstantial claims. —This unsigned comment is by 24.22.157.251 (talk • contribs) at 08:04, 30 May 2010 (UTC).

On internet
At comdex 1994, it is seen that he said "I see little commercial potential for the Internet for at least 10 years", at least this has been seen in a book: http://books.google.com/books?id=Tj-tNMt050gC&lpg=PA321&ots=rHUKRQufBK&pg=PA321#v=onepage&q&f=false --Jarl 06:23, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

born poor/die poor
I've seen "If you're born poor, it's not your mistake. But if you die poor, it is your mistake" attributed to Gates, but without sources, has anyone seen something? —This unsigned comment is by 77.176.68.241 (talk • contribs) at 18:47, 10 February 2012 (UTC).

 * I don't think Bill Gates is that stupid. I sincerely doubt the quote is real.  There's literally millions and millions of counter-examples to that.  Let's name a few, just to be sure: Nikola Tesla, Ignaz Semmelweis (died broke and insane because his contemporaries kept refusing to listen to his "insane" theory that washing hands in hospitals would save lives), Vincent van Gogh, William Blake, Gutenberg.  And that's really not even including the kind of people who weren't geniuses who died poor because of economic conditions or otherwise.  In short - Bill Gates = not a moron.  Person who would say that quote = moron. Bloomingdedalus (talk) 15:41, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

 * I wouldn't say that they're not at fault for dying poor. If Semmelweis wanted to make money, he could have.  Tesla was brilliant, but his focus was on progress, not money.  Gutenberg was a criminal by the time's standards, in an unprofitable field. 2001:1948:212:1020:BC67:AB1:74FC:1F6D 19:11, 8 January 2014 (UTC)Tanner Griffin, 12:11, 8 January 2013

 * The quote flies in the face of the poverty-reduction work he's dedicated billions of dollars to. —This unsigned comment is by 188.227.166.162 (talk • contribs) at 17:25, 29 November 2014 (UTC).

 * There's no source and it in no way sounds like something he would say (what's the context where a quote like that would come up? an address to shareholders?). I think it's fair to say this is not an authentic quote. 162.250.145.156 18:35, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

Antitrust movie
Attributed: it's very hard to imagine that this is not Bill Gates.

Allusions

Tim Robbins (2008, left) and Bill Gates (2007, right)

Roger Ebert found Gary Winston to be a thinly disguised pastiche of Bill Gates; so much so that he was "surprised [the writers] didn't protect against libel by having the villain wear a name tag saying, 'Hi! I'm not Bill!'" Similarly, Ebert felt NURV "seems a whole lot like Microsoft."[7] Ebert wasn't alone making these observations; parallels between the fictional and real-world software giants were also drawn by Lisa Bowman of ZDNet UK,[8] James Berardinelli of ReelViews,[9] and Rita Kempley of the The Washington Post.[10] Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said, "From the trailers, we couldn't tell if the movie was about [America Online] or Oracle."[8] —This unsigned comment is by 188.88.70.42 (talk • contribs) at 10:17, 22 April 2012 (UTC).

Lazy person to do a hard job
“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job, Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

I see this all over, but can't find a source. May be good for the misattributed section. 68.190.69.212 21:58, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

 * Based on Google searches, the first attribution of this to Bill Gates was June 28, 2009, and not through a reliable source. Previously, it is attributed through the same unreliable sources as being a Hitler quotation. —This unsigned comment is by 170.135.176.108 (talk • contribs) at 17:52, 4 March 2014 (UTC).

 * For further information regarding the origin of that (or similar quotes) have a look at: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/26/lazy-job/ and http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/28/clever-lazy/ —This unsigned comment is by 170.135.176.108 (talk • contribs) at 12:34, 16 March 2014 (UTC).

Image
Sorry I am not entirely familiar with Wikiquote code nor policy partly because it takes one to know one but could someone please change the article image of Bill Gates? Or in other certain terms, http://www.microsoft.com/global/en-us/news/PublishingImages/bod/billg/gates_print.jpg ...? Kind regards. (125.238.89.3 03:36, 23 June 2013 (UTC))

 * The current image may not be the most appealing; but we can only use images that are in the public domain or released under terms compatible with the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license, and the link you provided does not include licensing information. Several other images that are available for use here are listed at commons:Category:Bill Gates and its subcategories. ~ Ningauble (talk) 20:13, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Measuring aircraft building progress by weight
Could we get a source on this quote? "Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight." --Traal (talk) 20:19, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

 * This thread has some information on the quote. Interestingly, someone pointed to this newsgroup post from 2001, meaning that the phrase has been floating around for quite some time. On Wikipedia, someone claimed it was from Gates' 1999 book Business @ the Speed of Thought. I did some searches (1, 2, 3, 4), but the book does not seem to contain this phrase or anything resembling it. Cheers, Manifestation (talk) 10:48, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

 * In Gates (1994), he is said to have described IBM's management approach to OS/2 as "building the world's heaviest airplane." No complete sentence or original source is given. 73.71.251.64 02:15, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Bill Gates


text:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

 * "Alice in Wonderland" redirects here. For other uses, see Alice in Wonderland (disambiguation).

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), published on 4 July 1865, three years after the first telling of the tale to the three Liddell sisters, Ina, Alice and Edith, and promising to write it down at the request of Alice. A sequel was later written, Through the Looking-Glass.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

 * All in the golden afternoon Full leisurely we glide; For both our oars, with little skill, By little arms are plied, While little hands make vain pretense Our wanderings to guide.
 * Opening poem, first stanza.

 * Thus grew the tale of Wonderland: Thus slowly, one by one, Its quaint events were hammered out — And now our tale is done And home we steer, a merry crew, Beneath the setting sun.
 * Opening poem, stanza six.

 * Alice! a childish story take, And with a gentle hand Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined In Memory's mystic band, Like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers Plucked in a far-off land.
 * Opening poem, stanza seven.

Chapter I. Down the Rabbit-Hole.

 * Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures nor conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversation?'
 * Opening paragraph.

 * There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the ordinary to hear the Rabbit say to itself 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' ...but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out its waistcoat pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet.

 * After a fall such as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs!
 * Alice

 * So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible. There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, ('which certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words 'DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in large letters.

 * If you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.
 * Alice

 * 'Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, 'and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!'

Chapter II. The Pool of Tears.

 * Curiouser and curiouser!
 * Alice

 * How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale!
 * Alice; this is a parody of "Against Idleness and Mischief" by Isaac Watts:
 * How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower!

 * 'Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, 'to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying.'

Chapter III. A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale.

 * 'Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable — "' 'Found what?' said the Duck. 'Found it,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: 'of course you know what "it" means.' 'I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said the Duck: 'it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?'

 *  'Speak English!' said the Eaglet. 'I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!'
 * At last the Dodo said,  'Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'
 * This is the origin of The Dodo Bird Verdict, a phrase in psychotherapy

 * Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.

Chapter IV. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill.

 * Oh my ears and whiskers!
 * The White Rabbit

 * 'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole — and yet — and yet — it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what can have happened to me! 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! There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I grow up, I'll write one.'

Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar.

 * The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice. 'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.' 'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain yourself!'  'I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself, you see.'   'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar. 'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'

 *  'You are old Father William,' the young man said, 'And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head— Do you think at your age it is right?'   In my youth,' Father William replied to his son, 'I feared it might injure the brain; But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, Why, I do it again and again.'

Chapter VI. Pig and Pepper.

 * 'You don't know much,' said the Duchess, 'And that's a fact.'

 * Speak roughly to your little boy, And beat him when he sneezes: He only does it to annoy, Because he knows it teases.
 * The Duchess

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

 * I speak severely to my boy, I beat him when he sneezes; For he can then thoroughly enjoy The pepper when he pleases!
 * The Duchess

 * '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

 * '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.' Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on 'And how do you know that you're mad?' 'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?' 'I suppose so,' said Alice. 'Well, then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'

 * 'Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice; 'but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!'

 * 'It's really dreadful' She muttered to herself, 'The way all the creatures argue. It's enough to drive one crazy!'

Chapter VII. A Mad Tea-Party.

 * 'You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some severity; 'it's very rude.' The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was,  'Why is a raven like a writing-desk?'   'Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they've begun asking riddles. — I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud. 'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare.   'Exactly so,' said Alice. '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"!'  'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!' 'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, 'that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!' 'It is the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn't much.

 * The Hatter was the first to break the silence. 'What day of the month is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear. Alice considered a little, and then said 'The fourth.' 'Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter. 'I told you butter wouldn’t suit the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare. 'It was the best butter,' the March Hare meekly replied. 'Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter grumbled: 'you shouldn’t have put it in with the bread-knife.' The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, 'It was the best butter, you know.'

 * 'Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice again. 'No, I give it up,' Alice replied: 'what's the answer?' 'I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter. 'Nor I,' said the March Hare. Alice sighed wearily. 'I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, 'than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.'

 * Twinkle twinkle little bat! How I wonder what you're at!... Up above the world you fly like a tea tray in the sky
 * The Mad Hatter

 * '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.'

 * You know you say that things are 'much of a muchness' — did you ever see a drawing of a muchness?
 * The Dormouse

 * 'Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, 'I don't think —' 'Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.

Chapter VIII. The Queen's Croquet-Ground.

 * The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed 'Off with her head! Off—' 'Nonsense!' said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent.

 * The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.

 * They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here; the great wonder is, that there's any one left alive!
 * Alice

 * She was looking about for some way of escape, and wondering whether she could get away without being seen, when she noticed a curious appearance in the air: it puzzled her very much at first, but, after watching it a minute or two, she made it out to be a grin, and she said to herself 'It's the Cheshire Cat: now I shall have somebody to talk to.'  'How are you getting on?' said the Cat, as soon as there was mouth enough for it to speak with. Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. 'It's no use speaking to it,' she thought, 'till its ears have come, or at least one of them.'

 * 'I don't think they play at all fairly,' Alice began, in rather a complaining tone, 'and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can't hear oneself speak — and they don't seem to have any rules in particular; at least, if there are, nobody attends to them.'

 * 'A cat may look at a king,' said Alice. 'I've read that in some book, but I don't remember where.'

 * The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round.

Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle's Story.

 * Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.
 * The Duchess

 * '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.' 'I think I should understand that better,' Alice said very politely, 'if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it.'

 * 'Thinking again?' the Duchess asked, with another dig of her sharp little chin. 'I've a right to think,' said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to feel a little worried. 'Just about as much right,' said the Duchess, 'as pigs have to fly.'

 * 'Now, I give you fair warning,' shouted the Queen, stamping on the ground as she spoke; 'either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time! Take your choice!'

 * 'When we were little,' the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, 'we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle — we used to call him Tortoise —' 'Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked.  'We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle angrily: 'really you are very dull!' 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question,' added the Gryphon.

 * 'I only took the regular course.' 'What was that?' inquired Alice. 'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle replied; 'and then the different branches of Arithmetic — Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.'

 * 'And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject. 'Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: 'nine the next, and so on.' 'What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice. 'That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: 'because they lessen from day to day.'

 * 'Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.'

Chapter X. The Lobster Quadrille.

 * "Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail. "There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail. See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! They are waiting on the shingle—will you come and join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?

 *  'I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning,' said Alice a little timidly: 'but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.'   'Explain all that,' said the Mock Turtle.   'No, no! The adventures first,' said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: 'explanations take such a dreadful time.'

Chapter XI. Who Stole the Tarts?

 * 'Give your evidence,' said the King; 'and don't be nervous, or I'll have you executed on the spot.' This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept shifting from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen, and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-butter. Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation, which puzzled her a good deal until she made out what it was: she was beginning to grow larger again, and she thought at first she would get up and leave the court; but on second thoughts she decided to remain where she was as long as there was room for her.

 *  'But what did the Dormouse say?' one of the jury asked. 'That I can't remember,' said the Hatter. 'You must remember,' remarked the King, 'or I'll have you executed.'

 * Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court. (As that is rather a hard word, I will just explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.) 'I'm glad I've seen that done,' thought Alice. 'I've so often read in the newspapers, at the end of trials, "There was some attempts at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court," and I never understood what it meant till now.'

Chapter XII. Alice's Evidence.

 * Rule forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.

 * It's the oldest rule in the book.

 * The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked.  'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'

 * He sent them word I had not gone (We know it to be true): If she should push the matter on, What would become of you?

 * My notion was that you had been (Before she had this fit) An obstacle that came between Him, and ourselves, and it. Don't let him know she liked them best, For this must ever be A secret, kept from all the rest, Between yourself and me.

 * Sentence first, verdict afterwards.
 * The Queen of Hearts

 * 'Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) 'You're nothing but a pack of cards!'

Misattributed

 * You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants a magical solution to their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic.
 * Though written in contemporary idiomatic English, this has been recently cited on the Internet on various "quotations" websites (and elsewhere) as having being written by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland [sic]. However, it does not appear within the text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-Glass. It was actually a line spoken by a character named Jefferson in the TV series Once Upon a Time in a 2012 episode entitled "Hat Trick," in which the literary character The Mad Hatter appears. – Ref: Internet Movie Database (IMDb), quotes from Once upon a Time, "Hat Trick".

 * But, said Alice, if the world has absolutely no sense, who's stopping us from inventing one?
 * Originated in French-speaking social media as attributed to Carroll, but no similar passages appear in his written works. Ref: But, said Alice, where does that quotation come from? by Clémentine Beauvais

About Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

 * To peruse the wild and wacky theories that successive generations have dreamt up concerning the ‘true’ meaning of Alice’s adventures is to understand how changing social mores can radically alter a text. Of course, it’s a testament to the work’s essential timelessness that each era has been able to read its own fads and preoccupations into the story.
 * Hephzibah Anderson, "Alice in Wonderland’s hidden messages" May 31, 2016

 * There are good books which are only for adults, because their comprehension presupposes adult experiences, but there are no good books which are only for children. A child who enjoys the Alice books will continue to enjoy them when he or she is grown up, though his "reading" of what they mean will probably change.
 * W. H. Auden, Forewords and Afterwords (1973), p. 291

 * "The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget!" "You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it." - Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1872/1982, p. 94, emphasis in original) In his brief dialogue between the King and the Queen - two of the chess piece sovereigns of the Looking Glass House - Lewis Carroll captured the complementary sides of the coin we term memory The King, having experienced a "horrifying" event (being set on a table by Alice, a relative giant whom the King could neither see nor hear), expresses absolute faith in the durability of memory. The Queen, in contrast, presents a less flattering view of the capacity: that without some intervention (a memorandum), even a salient event will be forgotten. In a rare instance, the reality experienced by the King and Queen on their side of the looking glass is reflected on the drawing room side as well. Memory is at times seemingly and at other times frustratingly fallible. What is at times seemingly indelible and at other times frustratingly fallible. What is more, in true looking glass fashion, the same past experience can at one moment impinge on consciousness unbidden and at another elude deliberate attempts to recollect it.
 * Bauer, Patricia J. (2007). Remembering the times of our lives: memory in infancy and beyond. Hillsdale, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-5733-8. OCLC 62089961., p. 3.

 * I can guarantee that the books have no religious teaching whatever in them - in fact they do not teach anything at all.
 * Lewis Carroll, Letter to "The Lowrie Children" (undated), A Selection from the Letters of Lewis Carroll to his Child-Friends (1933) p.242

 * No story in English literature has intrigued me more than Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. It fascinated me the first time I read it as a schoolboy and as soon as I possibly could after I started making animated cartoons, I acquired the film rights to it. People in his period had no time to waste on triviality, yet Carroll with his nonsense and fantasy furnished a balance between seriousness and enjoyment which everybody needed then and still needs today.
 * Walt Disney American Weekly (1946)

Online book locations

 * British Library:Original manuscript in 3-D with optional voiceover
 * University of Adelaide:Text with illustrations by Tenniel
 * Art Passions: Text with illustrations by Arthur Rackham
 * DocOzone: Illustrations by Arthur Rackham (1907)
 * Indiana.edu: Text only
 * GASL.org: Text with illustrations by Tenniel (PDF, coloured edition in the Arno Schmidt Reference Library)
 * Duchs.com: Text only (RSS version)
 * Sabiana: Text with illustrations by Tenniel, with a commentary by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones
 * Sabiana: Text with illustrations by Tenniel, with a commentary by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones

Audio files

 * Wired for Books: A dramatic audio production of the book (RealAudio)

title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


text:
Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a children's novel by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the sequel to his earlier work of fiction, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Chapter 1: Looking-Glass house

 * One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it: — it was the black kitten's fault entirely. For the white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that it couldn't have had any hand in the mischief.

 * "Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds! Just as if some one was kissing the window all over outside. I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again." And when they wake up in the summer, Kitty, they dress themselves all in green, and dance about — whenever the wind blows — oh, that's very pretty!" cried Alice, dropping the ball of worsted to clap her hands. "And I do so wish it was true! I'm sure the woods look sleepy in the autumn, when the leaves are getting brown."

 * In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room. The very first thing she did was to look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quite pleased to find that there was a real one, blazing away as brightly as the one she had left behind. "So I shall be as warm here as I was in the old room," thought Alice: "warmer, in fact, because there'll be no one here to scold me away from the fire. Oh, what fun it'll be, when they see me through the glass in here, and can't get at me!"

 * "The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never never forget!" "You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it."
 * White King and Queen

 * Twas brillig and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"
 * From Jabberwocky, st. 1, first shown in mirror writing this is widely considered to be one of the greatest nonsense poems ever written, and has played an inspirational role in many later works by other authors, including "Mimsy Were The Borogoves" (1943) by Lewis Padgett, and the film which was a very loose adaptation of that story, The Last Mimzy (2007).

 * He chortled in his joy.
 * From Jabberwocky, st. 6

 * 'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas — only I don't exactly know what they are!"

Chapter 2: The Garden of Live Flowers

 * "O Tiger-lily," said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, "I wish you could talk!" "We can talk," said the Tiger-lily: "when there's anybody worth talking to."

 * "Never mind!" Alice said in a soothing tone, and stooping down to the daisies, who were just beginning again, she whispered, "If you don't hold your tongues, I'll pick you!" There was silence in a moment, and several of the pink daisies turned white.

 * "How is it you can all talk so nicely?" Alice said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a compliment. "I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers could talk." "Put your hand down, and feel the ground," said the Tiger-lily. "Then you'll know why." Alice did so. "It's very hard," she said, "but I don't see what that has to do with it." "In most gardens," the Tiger-lily said, "they make the beds too soft—so that the flowers are always asleep."

 * 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!"

 * Alice looked round her in great surprise. "Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!" "Of course it is," said the Queen, "what would you have it?" "Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing." "A slow sort of country!" said the Queen, "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
 * This is the etymon of The Red Queen Hypothesis which refers to a phenomenon in evolutionary biology

 * Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing—turn out your toes when you walk—and remember who you are!

Chapter 3: Looking-Glass Insects

 * "What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?" the Gnat inquired. "I don't rejoice in insects at all," Alice explained, "because I'm rather afraid of them—at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them." "Of course they answer to their names?" the Gnat remarked carelessly. "I never knew them to do it." "What's the use of their having names," the Gnat said, "if they won't answer to them?" "No use to them," said Alice; "but it's useful to the people who name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?"

Chapter 4: Tweedledum And Tweedledee

 * "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."

 * "The time has come", the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages — and Kings — And why the Sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings."
 * Tweedledee, reciting The Walrus and the Carpenter, st. 11

 * "I weep for you", the Walrus said, "I deeply sympathise."
 * Walrus and Carpenter, st. 17

 * "I like the Walrus best," said Alice, "because you see he was a little sorry for the poor oysters." "He ate more than the Carpenter, though," said Tweedledee. "You see he held his handkerchief in front, so that the Carpenter couldn't count how many he took: contrariwise." "That was mean!" Alice said indignantly. "Then I like the Carpenter best—if he didn't eat so many as the Walrus." "But he ate as many as he could get," said Tweedledum. This was a puzzler. After a pause, Alice began, "Well! They were both very unpleasant characters—"

 * "He's dreaming now," said Tweedledee: "and what do you think he's dreaming about?" Alice said "Nobody can guess that." "Why, about you!" Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. "And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be?" "Where I am now, of course," said Alice. "Not you!" Tweedledee retorted contemptuously. "You'd be nowhere. Why, you're only a sort of thing in his dream!" "If that there King was to wake," added Tweedledum, "you'd go out — bang! — just like a candle!" "I shouldn't!" Alice exclaimed indignantly. "Besides, if I'm only a sort of thing in his dream, what are you, I should like to know?" "Ditto" said Tweedledum. "Ditto, ditto!" cried Tweedledee. He shouted this so loud that Alice couldn't help saying, "Hush! You'll be waking him, I'm afraid, if you make so much noise." "Well, it's no use your talking about waking him," said Tweedledum, "when you're only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you're not real." "I am real!" said Alice and began to cry. "You won't make yourself a bit realler by crying," Tweedledee remarked: "there's nothing to cry about." "If I wasn't real," Alice said — half-laughing through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous — "I shouldn't be able to cry." "I hope you don't suppose those are real tears?" Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great contempt. "I know they're talking nonsense," Alice thought to herself: "and it's foolish to cry about it." So she brushed away her tears, and went on as cheerfully as she could.

 * "You know," he added very gravely, "it's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle — to get one's head cut off."
 * Tweedledee

Chapter 5: Wool and Water

 * "I'm sure I'll take you with pleasure!" the [White] Queen said. "Twopence a week, and jam every other day." Alice couldn't help laughing, as she said, "I don't want you to hire me—and I don't care for jam." "It's very good jam," said the Queen. "Well, I don't want any to-day, at any rate." "You couldn't have it if you did want it," the Queen said. "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday — but never jam to-day." "It must come sometimes to "jam to-day,"' Alice objected. "No, it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every other day: to-day isn't any other day, you know."

 * "I don't understand you," said Alice. "It's dreadfully confusing!" "That's the effect of living backwards," the Queen said kindly: "it always makes one a little giddy at first."

 * "Living backwards!" Alice repeated in great astonishment. "I never heard of such a thing!" "—but there's one great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways." "I'm sure mine only works one way," Alice remarked. "I can't remember things before they happen." "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards," the Queen remarked. "What sort of things do you remember best?" Alice ventured to ask. "Oh, things that happened the week after next," the Queen replied in a careless tone.

 * "Oh, don't go on like that!" cried the poor Queen, wringing her hands in despair. "Consider what a great girl you are. Consider what a long way you've come to-day. Consider what o'clock it is. Consider anything, only don't cry!" Alice could not help laughing at this, even in the midst of her tears. "Can you keep from crying by considering things?" she asked. "That's the way it's done," the Queen said with great decision: "nobody can do two things at once, you know."

 * "I'm just one hundred and one, five months and a day." "I can't believe that!" said Alice. "Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes." Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "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."

 * "Feather! Feather!" the Sheep cried again, taking more needles. "You'll be catching a crab directly."

Chapter 6: Humpty Dumpty

 * "My name is Alice, but — " "It's a stupid name enough!" Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently. "What does it mean?" "Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully. "Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh: "my name means the shape I am — and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost."

 * "I mean," she said, "that one can't help growing older." "One can't, perhaps," said Humpty Dumpty, "But two can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven."

 *  "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."  "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master— that's all."

Chapter 7: The Lion and the Unicorn

 * "I see nobody on the road," said Alice. "I only wish I had such eyes," the King remarked in a fretful tone. "To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance, too! Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!"

 * "He's an Anglo-Saxon Messenger — and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes. He only does them when he's happy."
 * White King

 * "I beg your pardon?" said Alice. "It isn't respectable to beg," said the King.
 * White King

 * "You alarm me!" said the King. "I feel faint — Give me a ham sandwich!"
 * White King

 * "Would you—be good enough," Alice panted out, after running a little further, "to stop a minute—just to get—one's breath again?" "I'm good enough," the King said, 'only I'm not strong enough. You see, a minute goes by so fearfully quick. You might as well try to stop a Bandersnatch!"

 * ...and he was going on, when his eye happened to fall upon Alice: he turned round rather instantly, and stood for some time looking at her with an air of the deepest disgust. "What—is—this?" he said at last. "This is a child!" Haigha replied eagerly, coming in front of Alice to introduce her, and spreading out both his hands towards her in an Anglo-Saxon attitude. "We only found it to-day. It's as large as life, and twice as natural!" "I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. "Is it alive?" "It can talk," said Haigha, solemnly. The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said "Talk, child." Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I never saw one alive before!" "Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?"

 * "What a time the Monster is, cutting up that cake!" Alice had seated herself on the bank of a little brook, with the great dish on her knees, and was sawing away diligently with the knife. "It's very provoking!" she said, in reply to the Lion (she was getting quite used to being called "the Monster"). "I've cut several slices already, but they always join on again!" "You don't know how to manage Looking-glass cakes," the Unicorn remarked. "Hand it round first, and cut it afterwards."

Chapter 8: "It's my own Invention"

 * Of all the strange things that Alice saw in her journey Through The Looking-Glass, this was the one that she always remembered most clearly. Years afterwards she could bring the whole scene back again, as if it had been only yesterday—the mild blue eyes and kindly smile of the Knight—the setting sun gleaming through his hair, and shining on his armour in a blaze of light that quite dazzled her—the horse quietly moving about, with the reins hanging loose on his neck, cropping the grass at her feet—and the black shadows of the forest behind—all this she took in like a picture, as, with one hand shading her eyes, she leant against a tree, watching the strange pair, and listening, in a half dream, to the melancholy music of the song.

Chapter 9: Queen Alice

 * "Speak when you're spoken to!" The Queen sharply interrupted her. "But if everybody obeyed that rule," said Alice, who was always ready for a little argument, "and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the other person always waited for you to begin, you see nobody would ever say anything, so that—" "Ridiculous!" cried the Queen. "Why, don't you see, child—" here she broke off with a frown, and, after thinking for a minute, suddenly changed the subject of the conversation.

 * "It's too late to correct it," said the Red Queen: "when you've once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences."

 * "You look a little shy; let me introduce you to that leg of mutton," said the Red Queen. "Alice—Mutton; Mutton—Alice." The leg of mutton got up in the dish and made a little bow to Alice; and Alice returned the bow, not knowing whether to be frightened or amused.

 * "What impertinence!" said the Pudding. "I wonder how you'd like it, if I were to cut a slice out of you, you creature!" It spoke in a thick, suety sort of voice, and Alice hadn't a word to say in reply: she could only sit and look at it and gasp. "Make a remark," said the Red Queen: "It's ridiculous to leave all conversation to the pudding!"

Chapter 12: Which Dreamed it?

 * It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that, whatever you say to them, they always purr. "If they would only purr for "yes" and mew for "no," or any rule of that sort" she had said, "so that one could keep up a conversation! But how can you talk with a person if they always say the same thing?"

 * Children yet, the tale to hear, Eager eye and willing ear, Lovingly shall nestle near. In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die:  Ever drifting down the stream — Lingering in the golden gleam — Life, what is it but a dream?

title: Through the Looking-Glass