August 15, 2009

Wisdom from Absurdity

I recently read "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll and would like to share some of the wisdom Alice acquires during her adventures.  Enjoy!

"Cheshire-Puss," she began, rather timidly ... "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.

... "Visit either you like; they're both mad."
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat.

"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."

"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!"

"I know what you're thinking about," said Tweedledum, "but it isn't so, nohow."
"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't so, it ain't. That's logic."