“It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

A witty challenge to habitual ideas about memory and anticipation · Through the Looking-Glass, dialogue

• Memory
• Time

“Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

A comically direct formulation of order and completeness · Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, dialogue

• Time
• Truth

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Celebrating imaginative openness and the suspension of ordinary limits · Through the Looking-Glass, dialogue

• Hope
• Imagination

“Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.”

Suggesting that meaning may be discovered even in apparent nonsense · Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, dialogue

• Beauty
• Truth

“Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.”

A playful defence of meaning over mere verbal ornament · Through the Looking-Glass, dialogue

• Art
• Truth