Dumpty Quotes & Sayings

Humpty Dumpty was pushed. — Fred Berri

Science fiction" means different things to different people. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra" - in which case the term science fiction has piled up a lot of expensive overtime. — Robert A. Heinlein

'I beg your pardon?' Alice said with a puzzled air.
'I'm not offended,' said Humpty Dumpty. — Lewis Carroll

She wasn't on heroin then, but she was a mess. I thought I was going to put Humpty Dumpty back together and turn her into a princess. Instead, she turned into scrambled eggs, and always was — Danielle Steel

It's actually as simple as this. New authors, building their customer base, need physical bookshops. Physical bookshops are lovely tactile, friendly, expert, welcoming places. Physical books, which can only be seen and handled in physical bookshops, are lovely, tactile things. Destroy those bookshops, and the very commercial and cultural base to the book industry is destroyed. Once and for all. Like Humpty Dumpty, it can never be put together again. — Tim Waterstone

Humpty had always sat on walls, it was his way. — Jasper Fforde

In his little speech to Alice, Humpty Dumpty sketches the future of human hopes and gives the clue to our salvation: to become masters of the words we speak, to make language answer our needs, Humpty Dumpty was a prophet, a man who spoke truths the world wasn't ready for. For all men are eggs, in a manner of speaking. We exist, but we haven't yet achieved the form that is our destiny. We are pure potential, an example of the not-yet-arrived. For man is a fallen creature
we know that from Genesis. Humpty Dumpty is also a fallen creature. He falls from his wall, and no one can put him back together again
neither his king, nor his horses, nor his men. But that is what we must all now strive to do. It is our duty as human beings to put the egg back together again. — Paul Auster

Jesus told you all that I hid the spiritual wisdom from the mind and thus it could only be accessed from the heart. And yet men become "learned" in the Bible and study and pull it apart and attempt to put it back together again. Just like the old nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty, "All the King's horses and all the King's men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again." My words cannot be put together again. My word cannot be "put together" by the mind of any man.
This is why I gave the New Covenant. It was and is My promise to guide those who wander, home again unto My heart. — Debra Clemente

I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't
till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"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."
Alive was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper, some of them
particularly, verbs, they're the proudest
adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs
however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say! — Lewis Carroll

And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five what remains?"
"Three hundred and sixty-four, of course."
Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful, "I'd rather see that done on paper," he said. — Lewis Carroll

We are like Humpty Dumpty and all these king's horses and all these king's men cannot put us back together again — Gale Forman

Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully.
Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh; "my name means the shape I am - and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost. — Lewis Carroll

I'm Jill Dumpty."
"So your brother was Humpty Dumpty?"
"And he didn't fall off that wall, Mr. Horner. He was pushed. — Neil Gaiman

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again — Lewis Carroll

He looks like a mixture of Humpty-Dumpty and a Cornish elf
very short and broad
and I don't think he's anyone's fool. — John Le Carre

You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again and your asset values will disappear, your apartment will be worth a fraction of what it is, your jobs will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers. — Lee Kuan Yew

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall with a joint, drinking some eight-ball. — Ice Cube

When I heard Humpty Dumpty I wondered did he fall or was he pushed? — P.D. James

No where in 'humpty dumpty' did it say he was an egg. Maybe your inability to think outside of what others have taught you is what's keeping you from putting him together again. — Darnell Lamont Walker

When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra. — Lewis Carroll

New nursery rhymes for new times. HIckory dickery dock my daddy's nuts from shelshock. Humpty dumpty thought he was wise till gas came along and hurned out his eyes. A dillar a dollar a ten o-clock schollar blow off his legs and then watch him holler ... — Dalton Trumbo

'Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?' 'I read it in a book,' said Alice. 'But I had some poetry repeated to me, much easier than that, by - Tweedledee, I think it was.' 'As to poetry, you know,' said Humpty Dumpty, stretching out one of his great hands, 'I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to that - ' 'Oh, it needn't come to that!' Alice hastily said, hoping to keep him from beginning. — Lewis Carroll

You have a diasporic black world, and the only way to put it back together again is symbolic. It's like Humpty Dumpty. Whoever could edit the 'Encyclopedia Africana' would provide symbolic order to the fragments created over the past 500 years. That is a major contribution. — Henry Louis Gates

And finally, I've always drawn a great deal of moral comfort from Humpty Dumpty. The part I like the best? 'All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.' That's because there is no Humpty Dumpty, and there is no God. None, not one, no God, never was. — George Carlin

Whitman Press will publish three children's textbooks, based on your creed, for which you'll deliver manuscripts and artwork. The three books are: 1. Dagon and Jill 2. The Shadow Over Humpty Dumpty 3. A Children's Necronomicon (with pop-up section) — H.P. Lovecraft

Disrespectful words cannot entirely be eaten, ever. Respect is a kind of Humpty Dumpty. All the king's horses can't put it all the way up again. — Charlotte Armstrong

Like Humpty Dumpty, we can make words mean anything we want them to mean. — Herbert A. Simon

I've never worked out what the moral of Humpty Dumpty is. I can only think of: Don't sit on a wall, if you're an egg. — Ricky Gervais

I mean, what is an un-birthday present?"
A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course."
Alice considered a little. "I like birthday presents best," she said at last.
You don't know what you're talking about!" cried Humpty Dumpty. "How many days are there in a year?"
Three hundred and sixty-five," said Alice.
And how many birthdays have you?"
One. — Lewis Carroll

When Grandma read me:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall ...
I never
knew
that
Humpty's
fall
was
something
that
someday
comes
to
us
all. — Lee Bennett Hopkins

Tell it, Fanny. About the crowds, streets, buildings, lights, about the whirligig of loneliness, about the humpty-dumpty clutter of longings. And then explain about the summer parks and the white snow and the moon window in the sky. Throw in a poignantly ironical dissertation on life, on its uncharted aimlessness, and speak like Sherwood Anderson about the desire that stir in the heart. Speak like Remy de Gourmont and Dostoevsky and Stevie Crane, like Schopenhauer and Dreiser and Isaiah; speak like all the great questioners whose tongues have wagged and whose hearts have burned with questions. He will listen bewilderedly and, perhaps, only perhaps, understand for a moment the dumb pathos of your eyes. — Ben Hecht

My work life makes much less sense now than 20 years ago. It's Humpty-Dumpty-like in a way; I can't put the pieces back together. — Kiki Smith

After a disappointing summer, Humpty Dumpty has a great fall. — Colin Mochrie

Thank you," Becky whispered ... "I wouldn't have survived that stool. It would have been 'Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.'"
With rings on your fingers and bells on your toes even, " he said.
"Curious that meeting you is more nursery rhyme than fairy tale. If I see a farmer's wife with a butcher's knife, I'm running and not looking back."
"And I'll have no nonsense from my dish and spoon. — Shannon Hale

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. — Therese Anne Fowler

Like Humpty Dumpty. At some point you have to pick up the pieces. Or walk away. Don't look back. Fuck the king's horses. — Lauren Beukes

Man is vulnerable only in his pride, but delicate as Humpty-Dumpty once that is meddled with - though some of them paid the fact a cautious lipservice. — F Scott Fitzgerald

When I heard, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, I thought, Did he fall or was he pushed? — P.D. James

When I should have been producing obscure volumes of verse entitled the Triumph of Humpty Dumpty or the Nose with the Luminous Dong! Or at best, like Clare, "weaving fearful vision" ... A frustrated poet in every man. Though it is perhaps a good idea under the circumstances to pretend at least to be proceeding with one's great work on "Secret Knowledge," then one can always say when it never comes out that the title explains the deficiency. — Malcolm Lowry