Quotes by A. A. Milne

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.

People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.

Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.

Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look ready for Anything.

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.

Some people care too much. I think it's called love.

War is something of man's own fostering, and if all mankind renounces it, then it is no longer there.

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.

You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

At first as they stumped along the path which edged the Hundred Acre Wood, they didn't say much to each other; but when they came to the stream, and had helped each other across the stepping stones, and were able to walk side by side again over the heather, they began to talk in a friendly way .

I must go forward where I have never been instead of backwards where I have.

Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.

He respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.

If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.

Owl looked at him, and wondered whether to push him off the tree; but, feeling that he could always do it afterwards, he tried once more to find out what they were talking about.

Owl is the grand and rather clever old man of the forest. He can also spell Tuesday.

But after all, what are birthdays? Here today and gone tomorrow.

How sweet to be a cloud. Floating in the blue!

A house with daffodils in it is a house lit up, whether or not the sun be shining outside. Daffodils in a green bowl and let it snow if it will.

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience well, that comes from poor judgment.

If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever.

There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

The end of the summer is not the end of the world. Here's to October.

Bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.

I gave up writing children's books. I wanted to escape from them as I had once wanted to escape from 'Punch': as I have always wanted to escape. In vain.

Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem.

What ever fortune brings, don't be afraid of doing things.

If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee.

If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You'd lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You'd say to the wind when it took you away:
That's where I wanted to go today!

James gave the huffle of a snail in danger. And nobody heard him at all.

When you are pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen, brush the honey off your nose and spruce yourself up as best you can, so as to look Ready for Anything.

In a very little time they got to the corner of the field by the side of the pine wood where Eeyore's house wasn't any longer. There! said Eeyore. Not a stick of it left! Of course, I've still got all this snow to do what I like with. One mustn't complain.

His dress told her nothing, but his face told her things which she was glad to know.

Drinking your milk and talking at the same time may result in your having to be patted on the back and dried for quite a long time afterwords.

Wherever I am, there's always Pooh, There's always Pooh and Me. Whatever I do, he wants to do, Where are you going today? says Pooh: Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too. Let's go together, says Pooh, says he. Let's go together, says Pooh.

There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said Nobody.

If the English language had been properly organized ... then there would be a word which meant both 'he' and 'she', and I could write, 'If John or Mary comes heesh will want to play tennis', which would save a lot of trouble.

What distinguishes Cambridge from Oxford, broadly speaking, is that nobody who has been to Cambridge feels impelled to write about it.

Eeyore, the old grey donkey, stood by the side of the stream and looked at himself in the water. Pathetic, he said. That's what it is. Pathetic.

Winnie the Pooh finds comfort in counting his pots of honey, and Rabbit finds comfort in knowing where his relations are -- even if he doesn't need them at the moment.

If a statement is untrue, it is not the more respectable because it has been said in Latin.

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew, Who had so many things which he wanted to do That, whenever he thought it was time to begin, He couldn't because of the state he was in.

No sensible author wants anything but praise.

Think, think, think.

Time is swift, it races by; Opportunities are born and die... Still you wait and will not try -- A bird with wings who dares not rise and fly.

Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories, and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have done for me, the least that I can do for you is to write you one.

I suppose that by this time they had finished their dressing. Roger Scurvilegs tells us nothing on such important matters; no doubt from modesty. Next morning they rose, he says, and disappoints us of a picture of Udo brushing his hair.

And really, it wasn't much good having anything exciting like floods, if you couldn't share them with somebody.

Eighteen pockets in one suit? I haven't the time.

I just wanted to be sure of you.

It is the best way to write poetry, letting things come. -Winnie-the-Pooh.

That's right, said Eeyore. Sing. Umty-tiddly, umty-too. Here we go gathering Nuts and May. Enjoy yourself. I am, said Pooh.

Life is so much friendlier with two.

On Monday, when the sun is hot, I wonder to myself a lot. Now is it true, or is it not, that what is which and which is what?

Why does a silly bird go on saying chiff-chaff all day long? Is it happiness or hiccups?

No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature.

Be sure to put the knocker fairly low on your door in case a very small friend drops by.

It was a drowsy summer afternoon, and the Forest was full of gentle sounds, which all seemed to be saying to Pooh, 'Don't listen to Rabbit, listen to me.' So he got in a comfortable position for not listening to Rabbit.

I found a little beetle, so that beetle was his name.

Ideas may drift into other minds, but they do not drift my way. I have to go and fetch them. I know no work manual or mental to equal the appalling heart-breaking anguish of fetching an idea from nowhere.

I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget.

WHERE did you say it was?' asked Pooh. Just here,' said Eeyore. Made of sticks?' Yes' Oh!' said Piglet. What?' said Eeyore. I just said Oh!' said Piglet nervously. And so as to seem quite at ease he hummed Tiddely-pom once or twice in a what-shall-we-do-now kind of way.

Turn around, Piglet. Step lightly, Pooh. This silly ol' dance is perfect for two.

The more he looked inside the more Piglet wasn't there.

I'll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he'll always get the answer.

Owl explained about the Necessary Dorsal Muscles. He had explained this to Pooh and Christopher Robin once before and had been waiting for a chance to do it again, because it is a thing you can easily explain twice before anybody knows what you are talking about.

I have a house where I go,

When there's too many people,

I have a house where I go

Where no one can be;

I have a house where I go,

Where nobody ever says no

Where no one says anything -- so

There is no one but me.

She would know a good thing to do without thinking about it.

Piglet opened the letter box and climbed in. Then, having untied himself, he began to squeeze into the slit, through which in the old days when front doors were front doors, many an unexpected letter than WOL had written to himself, had come slipping.

When you do the things that you can do, you will find a way.

That's what Tiggers do best!

The average man finds life very uninteresting as it is. And I think the reason why is that he is always waiting for something to happen to him instead of setting to work to make things happen.

You never can tell with bees.

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.

So perhaps the best thing to do is to stop writing Introductions and get on with the book.

And by and by Christopher Robin came to the end of things, and he was silent, and he sat there, looking out over the world, just wishing it wouldn't stop.

And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it.

Bouncy trouncy flouncy pouncy fun fun fun fun fun. The most wonderful thing about tiggers is I'm the only one! --Tigger

I was walking along looking for somebody, and then suddenly I wasn't anymore.

It's not much of a tail, but I'm sort of attached to it.

I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.

I did know once, only I've sort of forgotten.

When having a smackerel of something with a friend, don't eat so much that you get stuck in the doorway trying to get out.

It's always useful to know where a friend-and-relation is, whether you want him or whether you don't.

It's so much more friendly with two.

I don't see much sense in that, said Rabbit. No, said Pooh humbly, there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way.

What I like doing best is Nothing.

When late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish.

A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.

Promise you won't forget me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred.

Before beginning a hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it.

If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.

He said it twice because he had never said it before, and it sounded funny.

He was telling an interesting anecdote full of exciting words like encyclopedia and rhododendron.

Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the forest that was left out by mistake.

Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere.

One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows.

Tell the innocent visitor from another world that two people were killed at Sarajevo, and that the best that Europe could do about it was to kill eleven million more.

To the uneducated an A is just three sticks.

For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.

This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated, if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it.

Owl hasn't exactly got Brain, but he Knows Things.

Let's begin by taking a smallish nap or two.

Pooh looked at his two paws. He knew that one of them was the right, and he knew that when you had decided which one of them was the right, then the other one was the left, but he never

could remember how to begin.

The spring has sprung, the grass is rizz. I wonder where them birdies is?

Once upon a time there were three little foxes

Who didn't wear stockings, and they didn't wear sockses,

But they all had handkerchiefs to blow their noses,

And they kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes.

Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness.

He thought how sad it was to be an Animal who had never had a bunch of violets picked for him.

Are you prepared to have quite
obvious things explained to you, to ask futile questions, to give me
chances of scoring off you, to make brilliant discoveries of your own
two or three days after I have made them myself all that kind of thing?

Daffodowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
Winter is dead.

It is impossible to win gracefully at chess. No man has yet said Mate! in a voice which failed to sound to his opponent bitter, boastful and malicious.

Pooh, said Rabbit kindly, you haven't any brain. I know, said Pooh humbly.

A pekingeese is not a pet dog; he is an undersized lion.

Of beer, an enthusiast has said that it could never be bad, but that some brands might be better than others.

'How does one become butterfly?' Pooh asked pensively.
'You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar,' Piglet replied.
'You mean to die?' asked Pooh.
'Yes and no,' he answered. 'What looks like you will die, but what's really you will live on.'

A pipe in the mouth makes it clear that there has been no mistake -- you are undoubtedly a man.

A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards.

I don't feel very much like Pooh today, said Pooh. There there, said Piglet. I'll bring you tea and honey until you do.

A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.

If you were a cloud, and sailed up there, You'd sail on water as blue as air, And you'd see me here in the fields and say: Doesn't the sky look green today?

You gave me Christopher Robin, and then
You breathed new life in Pooh.
Whatever of each has left my pen
Goes homing back to you.
My book is ready, and comes to greet
The mother it longs to see --
It would be my present to you, my sweet,
If it weren't your gift to me.

A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.

'Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.'

Tut, Tut, looks like rain.

The Dormouse looked out, and he said with a sigh: I suppose all these people know better than I. It was silly, perhaps, but I did like the view Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue).

You are BRAVER than you believe,
and STRONGER than you seem,
and SMARTER than you think.

We'll be friends until forever, just you wait and see.

I used to believe in forever, but forever's too good to be true.

Brains first and then Hard Work.

Owl, said Rabbit shortly, you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest -- and when I say thinking I mean thinking -- you and I must do it.

Nowhere can I think so happily as in a train.

There are some people who begin the Zoo at the beginning, called WAYIN, and walk as quickly as they can past every cage until they get to the one called WAYOUT, but the nicest people go

straight to the animal they love the most, and stay there.

I suppose this is the reason why diaries are so rarely kept nowadays -- that nothing ever happens to anybody.

Well, you can't know it without something having been sneezed.

Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to be Hostile Animals?

Always wear a smile, because your smile is a reason for many others to smile!

You are stronger than you seem,
Braver than you believe,
and smarter than you think you are.

There's the South Pole, said Christopher Robin, and I expect there's an East Pole and a West Pole, though people don't like talking about them.

You are braver than you believe,
Stronger than you seem,
And smarter than you think(:.

Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So today is my new favorite day.

We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet.
Even longer,' Pooh answered.
Winnie-the-Pooh.

How do you spell 'love'? -- Piglet
You don't spell it...you feel it. -- Pooh.

Don't blame me if it rains.

I didn't bounce, I coughed, said Tigger crossly.
Bouncy or coffy, it's all the same at the bottom of the river.

They're funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you're having them.

The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.

It's your fault, Eeyore. You've never been to see any of us. You just stay here in this one corner of the Forest waiting for the others to come to you. Why don't you go to them sometimes?

Oh, Eeyore, you are wet! said Piglet, feeling him.
Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.

We can't all and some of us don't. That's all there is to it.

'Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?'
'Supposing it didn't,' said Pooh after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

Oh Tigger, where are your manners?
I don't know, but I bet they're having more fun than I am.

But Piglet is so small that he slips into a pocket, where it is very comfortable to feel him when you are not quite sure whether twice seven is twelve or twenty-two.

Friendship, said Christopher Robin, is a very comforting thing to have.

I wonder what Piglet is doing, thought Pooh.
I wish I were there to be doing it, too.

It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like What about lunch?

You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.

On Tuesday, when it hails and snows, The feeling on me grows and grows That hardly anybody knows If those are these or these are those.

On Wednesday, when the sky is blue, and I have nothing else to do, I sometimes wonder if it's true That who is what and what is who.

The hardest part is what to leave behind, ... It's time to let go!

Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.

The things that make me different are the things that make me.

No brain at all, some of them people, only grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't Think.

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. A second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. A first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

I think we dream so we don't have to be apart for so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can be together all the time.

Just because an animal is large, it doesn't mean he doesn't want kindness; however big Tigger seems to be, remember that he wants as much kindness as Roo.

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing.

It is hard to be brave, when you're only a Very Small Animal.

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

A writer wants something more than money for his work: he wants permanence.

I am sure of this: that no one can write a book which children will like unless he write it for himself first.

You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say.

Bores can be divided into two classes; those who have their own particular subject, and those who do not need a subject.

Tiggers don't like honey.

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.

If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name.

Never forget me, because if I thought you would, I'd never leave.

Is 'The Wind in the Willows' a children's book? Is 'Alice in Wonderland?' Is 'Treasure Island?' These are masterpieces which we read with pleasure as children, but with how much more pleasure when we are grown-up.

The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, agnosticism, disbelief -- call it what you will -- than any book ever written. It has emptied more churches than all the counter-attractions of cinema, motor-bicycle and golf course.

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.

My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.

Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad.

I suppose that every one of us hopes secretly for immortality; to leave, I mean, a name behind him which will live forever in this world, whatever he may be doing, himself, in the next.

What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?