Skip to content

“QuoteGeekFor the lines that stay with you.

Movies TV Books People Themes

Saved quotesTheme

Books quotes

Alice in Wonderland

The different branches of Arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.

Lewis Carroll

Author: Lewis Carroll
Year: 1865
Genres: fairy tale, literary nonsense, children's fiction

Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09

Lewis Carroll's wordplay is the engine: the Mock Turtle's school subjects -- 'Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision' -- are arithmetic run through a dream. But check your Alice quotes against the 1865 text: 'You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret: all the best people are' is from the 2010 Tim Burton film, not Carroll, and it is now printed on mugs as if it were Victorian. Carroll's own madness exchange -- 'We're all mad here' -- is stranger and far less consoling.

A place for the words you remember.

MoodsMotivational Inspirational Famous Positive Love Funny Life Short Friendship All themes

More of the archiveVideo Games Comics Anime

Collections Characters About Methodology Corrections Privacy

Share this quote

Open sharing page

“

Square · 1080 × 1080 · PNG

Image format

Choose an app in your device's share menu. Some apps leave out the caption; you can copy it below.

Download image ↓

Opens a draft with text and a link.

Select the text below to copy it.

Caption

Quote link