jabberwocky.

"very true," said the duchess. " flamingoes and mustard both bite. and the moral of that is - 'birds of a feather flock together.'"
"only mustard isn't a bird," alice remarked.
"right, as usual," said the duchess. "what a clear way you have of putting things!"
"it's a mineral, i think,"said alice.
"of course it it," said the duchess, who seemed ready to agree to everything that alice said. "there's a large mustard-machine near here. and the moral of that is - 'the more there is of mine, the less there is of yours.'"
"oh, i know!" exclaimed alice, who had not attended to this last remark. "it's a vegetable. it doesn't look like one, but it is."
"i quite agree with you," said the duchess. "and the moral of that is - 'be what you would seem to be' - or, if you'd like it put more simply - 'never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'"

- alice's adventures in wonderland, lewis carroll

"the greatest hazard of all, losing the self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. no other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed."

"thus possibility seems greater and greater to the self; more and more it becomes possible because nothing becomes actual. eventually everything seems possible, but this is exactly the point at which the abyss swallows up the self. it takes time for each little possibility to become an actuality. eventually, however, the time that should be used for actuality grows shorter and shorter; everything becomes more and more momentary. possibility becomes more and more intensive - but in the sense of possibility, not in the sense of actuality, for the intensive in the sense of actuality means to actualize some of what is possible. the instant something appears to be possible, a new possibility appears, and finally these phantasmagoria follow one another in such rapid succession that it seems as if everything were possible, and this is exactly the final moment, the point at which the individual himself becomes a mirage."

- the sickness unto death, soren kierkegaard

"there are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. there are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. and then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. the world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: what's up with this glass? excuse me? excuse me? this is my glass? i don't think so. my glass was full! and it was a bigger glass!"

- the truth, terry pratchett

"should i give up or should i just keep chasing pavements,
even if it leads nowhere?
or would it be a waste even if i knew my place,
should i leave it there?
should i give up or should i just keep chasing pavements,
even if it leads nowhere?"

- chasing pavements, adele