meaning

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.
[this quote also appears in Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Chapter 9, p. 28]

'Always speak the truth - think before you speak - and write it down afterwards.'
'I'm sure I didn't mean - ' Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted her impatiently.
'That's just what I complain of!  You should have meant!  What do you suppose is the use of child without any meaning?  Even a joke should have some meaning - and a child's more important than a joke, I hope.

Well, "slithy" means "lithe and slimy."  "Lithe" is the same as "active."  You see it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word.

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

'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.'

'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.
'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least - at least I mean what I say - that's the same thing, you know.'
'Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter.  'You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!'
'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!'

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing-wax -
Of cabbages - and kings - "

'Tut, tut, child!' said the Duchess.  'Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.'

The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.

Better than a meaningless story of a thousand words is a single word of deep meaning which, when heard, produces peace.