I maintain that any writer of a book is fully authorised in attaching any meaning he likes to a word or phrase he intends to use. If I find an author saying, at the beginning of his book, "Let it be understood that by the word 'black' I shall always mean 'white,' and by the word 'white' I shall always mean 'black,'" I meekly accept his ruling, however injudicious I think it.

The Red Queen shook her head. "You may call it 'nonsense' if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant.

"Well, it's no use your talking about waking him," said Tweedledum, "when you're only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you're not real."

Thy loving smile will surely hail The love-gift of a fairy tale.

"Well, I never heard it before," said the Mock Turtle; "but it sounds uncommon nonsense."