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Who really said it

But I don't want to go among mad people, Alice remarked. Oh, you can't help that, said the Cat: we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad

Written by Lewis Carroll 1832–1898 · English author & Oxford mathematician
Verified Free to reuse

Word for word from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Macmillan, November 1865), Chapter VI, “Pig and Pepper”. The speaker is the Cheshire Cat, answering Alice after directing her to the Hatter and the March Hare; Carroll wrote it.

Last verified 20 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“But I don't want to go among mad people, Alice remarked. Oh, you can't help that, said the Cat: we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” — Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), ch. 6

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

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In context

Evoking the world of Lewis Carroll — English author, mathematician & Oxford lecturer. Theme: "But I don't want to go among mad people, Alice remarked. Oh, you can't help that, said the Cat: we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "But I don't want to go among mad people, Alice remarked. Oh, you can't help that, said the Cat: we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The passage

Work
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter
VI — “Pig and Pepper”
First published
Macmillan, London, November 1865
Spoken by
The Cheshire Cat, to Alice — both fictional characters

“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

The popular quotation usually stops at “You’re mad” — which loses the Cat’s actual argument. His proof that Alice is mad is that she turned up at all.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, full text at Project Gutenberg

How we checked it

Public domain

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first published by Macmillan in November 1865 and Carroll died in 1898, so the text is long out of copyright in the United States and free to reproduce. Note that this applies to Carroll’s words: John Tenniel’s original illustrations are likewise public domain, but a particular modern edition’s typesetting, notes or new artwork may not be.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What usually goes wrong

Nobody disputes that Carroll wrote this. What travels badly is who says it and where it stops.

The Mad Hatter

The line is routinely captioned as the Hatter’s, helped by a century of illustration and film. It is the Cheshire Cat’s, and the Hatter has not appeared yet — the Cat is in the middle of giving Alice directions to him.

The clipped version

Most reproductions end at “I’m mad. You’re mad.” The exchange continues for two more lines, and the Cat’s reasoning — “You must be, or you wouldn’t have come here” — is the part that makes it a joke rather than a slogan.

Carroll wrote it, the Cheshire Cat says it, and it sits in Chapter VI of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ↗.

Context

Why the Cat gets the good line

The Cheshire Cat is the only creature in Wonderland who knows he is in Wonderland. Everyone else is busy being absurd; the Cat is the one commenting on the absurdity, which is why Carroll gives him the book’s tidiest piece of logic and its most quotable shrug.

The exchange also does real work in the plot: it is the Cat’s directions that send Alice to the March Hare, and so into the tea-party in the following chapter. The line people quote as free-floating philosophy is, in the book, a set of walking directions with an argument attached.

The only creature in Wonderland who knows he is in Wonderland.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom Doubt Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — full textwww.gutenberg.org

The complete book, free. Chapter VI carries the passage.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1866) — Chapter VIen.wikisource.org

The chapter carrying this passage, in the Macmillan text as originally issued.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Chapter-by-chapter transcription of the book’s best-known passages.
Lewis Carroll on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

His sourced quotations, plus the misattributed list — useful, because a lot of “Carroll” online is not his.
Lewis Carrollen.wikipedia.org

Biography of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the Oxford mathematician behind the pen name.

The author

About Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

1832–1898 · English author, mathematician & Oxford lecturer

Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford. Under the pseudonym he wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871); under his own name he published on geometry and logic. He was also a prolific letter-writer, and a good deal of what circulates as “Carroll” online comes from that correspondence rather than the Alice books.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Cite this

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (London: Macmillan, 1865), chap. 6, “Pig and Pepper”. Verified against the full Project Gutenberg text, 20 September 2026.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘But I don’t want to go among mad people, Alice remarked. Oh, you can’t help that, said the Cat: we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad’?” Last verified 20 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/but-i-dont-want-to-go-among-mad-people-alice-remarked-oh/

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