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Who can tell whether the parallelogram, which in our ignorance we have defined and drawn, and the whole of whose properties we profess to know, may not be all the while panting for exterior angles, sympathetic with the interior, or sullenly repining at the fact that it cannot be inscribed in a circle?
Lewis Carroll
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Went to the new Church both morning and afternoon, and read service in the afternoon. I got through it all with great success, till I came to read out the first verse of the hymn before the sermon, where the two words ‘strife strengthened,’ coming together, were too much for me, and I had to leave the verse unfinished.
Lewis Carroll
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To me it seems that to give happiness is a far nobler goal that to attain it: and that what we exist for is much more a matter of relations to others than a matter of individual progress: much more a matter of helping others to heaven than of getting there ourselves.
Lewis Carroll
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Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish, game or any other dish? Who would not give all else for two pennyworth of beautiful soup?
Lewis Carroll
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Courtesy is a small act but it packs a mighty wallop.
Lewis Carroll
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Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards.
Lewis Carroll
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There was once a young man of Oporta, Who daily got shorter and shorter, The reason he said Was the hod on his head Which was filled with the heaviest mortar.
Lewis Carroll
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The pictures, with their ruddy light, Are changed to dust and ashes white, And I am left alone with night.
Lewis Carroll
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Well that was the silliest tea party I ever went to! I am never going back there again!
Lewis Carroll
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Yet still to choose a brat like you, To haunt a man of forty-two, Was no great compliment!'
Lewis Carroll
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So, to reward him for his run (As it was baking hot, And he was over twenty stone), The King proceeded, half in fun, To knight him on the spot.
Lewis Carroll
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'True love gives true love of the best: Then take,' I cried, 'my heart to thee!' The very heart from out my breast I plucked, I gave it willingly; Her very heart she gave to me - Then died the glory from the west.In the gray light I saw her face, And it was withered, old, and gray; The flowers were fading in their place, Were fading with the fading day.
Lewis Carroll
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The rabbits bow before thee, And cower in the straw; The chickens are submissive, And own thy will for law; Bullfinches and canary Thy bidding do obey; And e'en the tortoise in its shell Doth never say thee nay.
Lewis Carroll
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We are but older children, dear, Who fret to find our bedtime near.
Lewis Carroll
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Fair stands the ancient Rectory, The Rectory of Croft, The sun shines bright upon it, The breezes whisper soft. From all the house and garden Its inhabitants come forth, And muster in the road without, And pace in twos and threes about, The children of the North.
Lewis Carroll
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She generally gave herself very good advice, though she very seldom followed it.
Lewis Carroll
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Alice: "How long is forever?" White Rabbit: "Sometimes, just one second."
Lewis Carroll
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An island-farm - broad seas of corn Stirred by the wandering breath of morn - The happy spot where I was born.
Lewis Carroll
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God has given to Man an absolute right to take the lives of other animals, for any reasonable cause, such as the supply of food; but He has not given to Man the right to inflict pain, unless where necessary.
Lewis Carroll
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Last night we owned, with looks forlorn, 'Too well the scholar knows There is no rose without a thorn' - But peace is made! We sing, this morn, 'No thorn without a rose!' Our Latin lesson is complete: We've learned that Love is Bitter-Sweet!
Lewis Carroll
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Lady Clara Vere de Vere Was eight years old, she said: Every ringlet, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden thread.
Lewis Carroll
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I believe this thought, of the possibility of death - if calmly realised, and steadily faced would be one of the best possible tests as to our going to any scene of amusement being right or wrong. If the thought of sudden death acquires, for you, a special horror when imagined as happening in a theatre, then be very sure the theatre is harmful for you, however harmless it may be for others; and that you are incurring a deadly peril in going.
Lewis Carroll
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If doubtful whether to end with 'yours faithfully', or 'yours truly', or 'your most truly', &c. (there are at least a dozen varieties, before you reach 'yours affectionately'), refer to your correspondent’s last letter, and make your winding-up at least as friendly as his: in fact, even if a shade more friendly, it will do no harm!
Lewis Carroll
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She's stark raving mad!
Lewis Carroll
