Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Quotes

Context

This famous line is from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).

Literary quotes are so much more likely to become famous when they have multiple layers of meanings. Well, Lewis Carroll was no hack. He knew what he was doing. Ready to go down the rabbit-hole?

In the book, Alice is asked to talk about her adventures, but she insists that it would be of no use to "go back to yesterday, because [she] was a different person then." On the surface, this is just her saying that so much has happened that she'd rather focus on the here and now, rather than spend time dwelling on the past.

But she's also subtly acknowledging that the events of the past twenty-four hours have changed her significantly. It's almost as if her earlier adventures didn't even happen to her at all, but to some earlier prototype of herself—some stranger with similar fashion sense and an eerily familiar hairstyle.

And because Carroll isn't just telling a children's story about a girl who has adventures, it's probably safe to assume that he was trying to say something here about the ways in which all of us grow older, about our loss of innocence, and so on. The significant events in our lives change us so much that we can barely relate to the people we used to be before we lived them.

Oof. We may have to pop our heads back up out of this rabbit-hole for a breath of air. It's getting stuffy in here.

Where you've heard it

Oh, we're sure you've heard this line every time your crazy older brother starts complaining again about how he can't get his time machine to work. If you ask us, he really should be committed.

Additional Notable References

• What better way to show everyone your love of Alice in Wonderland than with a tank top? 
• The line is immensely popular among Wonderlandphiles, and you may find it inspiring hand drawings and other mediums. Different strokes for different folks, right?

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Aww… who could ever accuse sweet little Alice of being pretentious? She's just telling it like it is. However, this quote is engaging with deep thoughts, so we can't quite give it a "1."