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.

The recent extraordinary discovery in Photography, as applied in the operations of the mind, has reduced the art of novel-writing to the merest mechanical labour.

One of the hardest things in the world is to convey a meaning accurately from one mind to another.

'And how, who am I? I will remember, if I can! I'm determined to do it!' But being determined didn't help much.

Why is it that people with the most narrow of minds seem to have the widest of mouths?

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.

Why, you might just as well say that, I see what I eat, is the same as, I eat what I see.