Humpty Dumpty Quotes

• '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.'

  Lewis Carroll

  Mean Girls, Use, Tone

  'Through the Looking-Glass' (1872) ch. 6

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• I've never worked out what the moral of Humpty Dumpty is. I can only think of: Don't sit on a wall, if you're an egg.

  Ricky Gervais

  Funny, Wall, Thinking

  FaceBook post by Ricky Gervais from Oct 15, 2013

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• 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.

  Lewis Carroll

  Mean, Different, Wonderland

  1871 Through the Looking-Glass, ch.6,'Humpty Dumpty'.

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• Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again

  Lewis Carroll

  Horse, Kings, Wall

  Lewis Carroll (1998). “Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There”, p.22, Pioneer Drama Service, Inc.

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• The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today.

  Lewis Carroll

  Food, Yesterday, Cooking

  Though the Looking-Glass ch. 5 (1872)

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• 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.

  Lewis Carroll

  Mean, Names, Laughing

  'Through the Looking-Glass' (1872) ch. 6

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• I mean, what is an un-birthday present?" A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course." Alice considered a little. "I like birthday presents best," she said at last. You don't know what you're talking about!" cried Humpty Dumpty. "How many days are there in a year?" Three hundred and sixty-five," said Alice. And how many birthdays have you?" One.

  Lewis Carroll

  Mean, Talking, Years

  Lewis Carroll (2017). “Alice in Wonderland Collection: All Four Books: All Four Books”, p.110, Lulu.com

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• And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five what remains?" "Three hundred and sixty-four, of course." Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful, "I'd rather see that done on paper," he said.

  Lewis Carroll

  Three, Done, Paper

  Lewis Carroll (2015). “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: 150th-Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.166, Penguin

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• 'Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?' 'I read it in a book,' said Alice. 'But I had some poetry repeated to me, much easier than that, by - Tweedledee, I think it was.' 'As to poetry, you know,' said Humpty Dumpty, stretching out one of his great hands, 'I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to that - ' 'Oh, it needn't come to that!' Alice hastily said, hoping to keep him from beginning.

  Lewis Carroll

  Book, Thinking, Hands

  'Through the Looking-Glass' (1872) ch. 6

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• 'I beg your pardon?' Alice said with a puzzled air.
  'I'm not offended,' said Humpty Dumpty.

  Lewis Carroll

  Air, Confusion, Confusing

  Lewis Carroll, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood (2014). “The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll With All the Original Illustrations + The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll: All the Novels, Stories and Poems: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland + Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There + Sylvie and Bruno + A Tangled Tale + What the Tortoise Said to Achilles + Puzzles from Wonderland + The Hunting of the Snark and much more”, p.195, e-artnow

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• Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.

  Lewis Carroll

  Running, Philosophy, Philosophical

  'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (1865) ch. 12

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

  Lewis Carroll

  Wonderland, Through The Looking Glass, Alice In Wonderland Book

  Through the Looking-Glass ch. 1 (1872)

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• If you don't know where you're going any road will do

  Lewis Carroll

  Baseball, Travel, Goals Dreams

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• I said you LOOKED like an egg, Sir. And some eggs are very pretty, you know.

  Lewis Carroll

  Eggs, Through The Looking Glass, Said

  Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents, and only one for birthday presents, you know.

  Lewis Carroll

  Birthday, Hypocrisy, Four

  Adrian Mitchell, Lewis Carroll (2001). “Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass”, Oberon Books Limited

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• They've a temper, some of them - particularly verbs, they're the proudest - adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs.

  Lewis Carroll

  Adjectives, Verbs, Through The Looking Glass

  Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Hickory dickory dock my daddy’s nuts from shell shock. Humpty dumpty thought he was wise till gas came along and burned out his eyes. A dillar a dollar a ten o clock scholar blow off his legs and then watch him holler. Rockaby baby in the tree top don’t stop a bomb or you’ll probably flop. Now I lay me down to sleep my bombproof cellars good and deep but if I’m killed before I wake remember god its for your sake amen.

  Dalton Trumbo

  Wise, Baby, Sleep

  Dalton Trumbo (2007). “Johnny Got His Gun”, p.189, Kensington Publishing Corp.

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• 'But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.'

  Lewis Carroll

  Cat, Mad, People

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• Know what you are talking about.

  Pope John Paul II

  Knowledge, Knowing Jesus, Talking

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• Know what you're talking about.

  George H. W. Bush

  Knowing Jesus, Talking, Scary

  George H.W. Bush (2013). “All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings”, p.99, Simon and Schuster

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• I can explain all the poems that were ever invented - and a good many that haven't been invented just yet.

  Lewis Carroll

  Poetry, Good Man, Through The Looking Glass

  Lewis Carroll, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood (2014). “The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll With All the Original Illustrations + The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll: All the Novels, Stories and Poems: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland + Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There + Sylvie and Bruno + A Tangled Tale + What the Tortoise Said to Achilles + Puzzles from Wonderland + The Hunting of the Snark and much more”, p.197, e-artnow

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• My work life makes much less sense now than 20 years ago. It's Humpty-Dumpty-like in a way; I can't put the pieces back together.

  Kiki Smith

  Years, Together, Pieces

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• disrespectful words cannot entirely be eaten, ever. Respect is a kind of Humpty Dumpty. All the king's horses can't put it all the way up again.

  Charlotte Armstrong

  Respect, Horse, Kings

  Charlotte Armstrong (2018). “The Dream Walker”, p.110, Head of Zeus Ltd

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• It's actually as simple as this. New authors, building their customer base, need physical bookshops. Physical bookshops are lovely tactile, friendly, expert, welcoming places. Physical books, which can only be seen and handled in physical bookshops, are lovely, tactile things. Destroy those bookshops, and the very commercial and cultural base to the book industry is destroyed. Once and for all. Like Humpty Dumpty, it can never be put together again.

  Tim Waterstone

  Book, Simple, Together Again

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• You have a diasporic black world, and the only way to put it back together again is symbolic. It's like Humpty Dumpty. Whoever could edit the 'Encyclopedia Africana' would provide symbolic order to the fragments created over the past 500 years. That is a major contribution.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Past, Order, Years

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