3 quotations linked to Through the Looking-Glass by or associated with Lewis Carroll, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today.”
The rule is comic because its promise is permanently deferred: reward exists on every day except the one a person is actually living.
Source note: Through the Looking-Glass; the White Queen explains the backwards rule governing jam.
“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”
The White Queen treats remembering the future as perfectly ordinary, producing humor by applying confident logic to an impossible premise.
Source note: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 5; the White Queen explains the supposed advantage of living backwards.
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
The absurd boast celebrates imaginative flexibility and the ability to entertain possibilities before demanding immediate proof.
Source note: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 5.