Where did this quotation in "The Last Emperor" come from?

[Speaker_for_the_Dead]

As Peter O’Toole is first tutoring the young Pu Yi, he explains the importance of grammar: “If you cannot say what you mean, you will never mean what you say, and a gentleman always means what he says.”

Was this written just for the movie, or does it have a historical context?

[Giles]

It does seem to be related to this exchange from Alice in Wonderland:

@Lewis Carroll

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

And then there’s also Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glasson the meaning of “meaning”.

@Lewis Carroll

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather 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.”

[Khadaji]

Or from Dr. Seusse?

I meant what I said and I said what I meant - and Elehpant’s faithful 100 percent.

[booklyn]

this reminds me of Chompsky…

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

[Zoe]

booklyn, welcome to SDMB.

Thanks for mentioning that one. I had misremembered it as “Sweet green dreams sleep furiously.” (But I first learned about it a little closer to the time that Chomsky came up with it.) Now it makes less sense – which is a good thing, of course.

I noticed another response of yours elsewhere. Hope you hang around.