A.A. Milne Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by A.A. Milne.
Famous Quotes By A.A. Milne
If people ask me,
I always tell them:
"Quite well, thank you, I'm very glad to say."
If people ask me,
I always answer,
"Quite well, thank you, how are you today?"
I always answer,
I always tell them,
If they ask me
Politely ...
BUT SOMETIMES
I wish
That they wouldn't — A.A. Milne
What I like doing best is Nothing."
"How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.
"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say, 'Oh, Nothing,' and then you go and do it.
It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
"Oh!" said Pooh. — A.A. Milne
Owl,' said Rabbit shortly, 'you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is easy thinking to be done in this Forest - and when I say thinking I mean thinking - you and I must do it. — A.A. Milne
Oh, Kanga," said Pooh, after Rabbit had winked at him twice, "I don't know if you are interested in Poetry at all?" "Hardly at all," said Kanga. — A.A. Milne
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). — A.A. Milne
War is something of man's own fostering, and if all mankind renounces it, then it is no longer there. — A.A. Milne
Honey or condensed milk with your bread?" he was so excited that he said, "Both," and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, "but don't bother about the bread, please. — A.A. Milne
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.A. Milne
The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about. — A.A. Milne
When carrying a jar of honey to give to a friend for his birthday, don't stop and eat it along the way. — A.A. Milne
And then we'll go out, Piglet, and sing my song to Eeyore."
"Which song, Pooh?"
"The one we're going to sing to Eeyore," explained Pooh. — A.A. Milne
So perhaps the best thing to do is to stop writing Introductions and get on with the book. — A.A. Milne
Christopher Robin ... just said it had an "x."' 'It isn't their necks I mind,' said Piglet earnestly. 'It's their teeth. — A.A. Milne
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! — A.A. Milne
Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up. — A.A. Milne
A clever conjurer is welcome anywhere, and those of us whose powers of entertainment are limited to the setting of booby-traps or the arranging of apple-pie beds must view with envy the much greater tribute of laughter and applause which is the lot of the prestidigitator with some natural gift for legerdemain. — A.A. Milne
Christopher Robin was home by this time, because it was the afternoon, and he was so glad to see them that they stayed there until very nearly tea-time, and then they had a Very Nearly tea, which is one you forget about afterwards, and hurried on to Pooh Corner, so as to see Eeyore before it was too late to have a Proper Tea with Owl. — A.A. Milne
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? — A.A. Milne
Hallo, Rabbit," he said, "is that you?"
"Let's pretend it isn't," said Rabbit, "and see what happens. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
How sweet to be a Cloud Floating in the Blue! It makes him very proud To be a little cloud. — A.A. Milne
The things that make me different are the things that make me. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
Well, if you listen, Piglet, you'll hear it."
"How do you know I'm not listening?" Pooh couldn't answer that one, so he began to sing. — A.A. Milne
Pooh," said Rabbit kindly, "you haven't any brain."
"I know," said Pooh humbly. — A.A. Milne
When I was young, we always had mornings like this. — A.A. Milne
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.A. Milne
Yin day, when Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh and Wee Grumphie were aw haein a crack thegither, Christopher Robin feenished whit he had in his mooth and said lichtsomely: 'I saw a Huffalamp the-day, Wee Grumphie.'
'Whit wis it daein?' spiered Wee Grumphie.
'Jist lampin alang', said Christopher Robin. 'I dinna think it saw me.'
'I saw yin wance', said Wee Grumphie. 'At least, I think it wis a Huffalamp. But mibbe it wisna.'
'Sae did I', said Pooh, wunnerin whit like a Huffalamp wis.
'Ye dinna see them that aften', said Christopher Robin in an affhaund wey.
'No noo', said Wee Grumphie.
'No at this time o the year', said Pooh. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
They're funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you're having them. — A.A. Milne
I didn't bounce, I coughed," said Tigger crossly.
"Bouncy or coffy, it's all the same at the bottom of the river. — A.A. Milne
My particular memory is of a quail-pie. Quails may be alright for Moses in the desert, but, if they are served in the form of pie at dinner, they should be distributed at a side-table, not handed round from guest to guest. The countess having shuddered at it and resumed her biscuit, it was left to me to make the opening excavation. The difficulty was to know where each quail began and ended: the job really wanted a professional quail-finder, who might have indicated the on the surface of the crust at which it would be most hopeful to dig for quails. — A.A. Milne
Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart. — A.A. Milne
Pooh felt that he ought to say something helpful about it, but didn't quite know what.
So he decided to do something helpful instead. — A.A. Milne
Let's begin by taking a smallish nap or two. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
What day is it?"
It's today," squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day," said Pooh. — A.A. Milne
Which makes it a bothering sort of day. — A.A. Milne
I did know once, only I've sort of forgotten. — A.A. Milne
Life is so much friendlier with two. — A.A. Milne
A pipe in the mouth makes it clear that there has been no mistake-you are undoubtedly a man. — A.A. Milne
We can't all, and some of us don't. — A.A. Milne
And Teddy worried lots about
The fact that he was rather stout.
He thought: If only I were thin!
But how does anyone begin? — A.A. Milne
By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day." But all the little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late. — A.A. Milne
Time for a little something. — A.A. Milne
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY. Pooh — A.A. Milne
If possible, try to find a way to come downstairs that doesn't involve going bump, bump, bump, on the back of your head. — A.A. Milne
You mean Piglet. The little fellow with the excited ears. That's Piglet. — A.A. Milne
I wonder what Piglet is doing," thought Pooh.
"I wish I were there to be doing it, too. — A.A. Milne
Good morning, Eeyore," said Pooh.
"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning, which I doubt," said he.
"Why, what's the matter?"
"Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it."
"Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.
"Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush. — A.A. Milne
Oh Tigger, where are your manners?"
"I don't know, but I bet they're having more fun than I am. — A.A. Milne
Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts. — A.A. Milne
Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them. — A.A. Milne
You are braver than you believe,
Stronger than you seem,
And smarter than you think(: — A.A. Milne
Tut-tut, it looks like rain. — A.A. Milne
It's so much more friendly with two. — A.A. Milne
She would know a good thing to do without thinking about it. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
One of the difficulties of thinking clearly about anything is that it is almost impossible not to form our ideas in words which have some previous association for us; with the result that our thought is already shaped along certain lines before we have begun to follow it out. Again, a word may have various meanings, and our use of it in one sense may deceive our readers (or even ourselves) into supposing that we were using it in some other sense. — A.A. Milne
Don't talk anybody, don't come near! Can't you see the fish might hear? He thinks I'm playing with a piece of string; He thinks I'm another sort of funny thing, But he doesn't know I'm fishing - He doesn't know I'm fishing. That's what I'm doing - Fishing. — A.A. Milne
Of course it's very hampering being a detective, when you don't know anything about detecting, and when nobody knows that you're doing detection, and you can't have people up to cross-examine them, and you have neither the energy nor the means to make proper inquiries; and, in short, when you're doing the whole thing in a thoroughly amateur, haphazard way. — A.A. Milne
A proper sense of proportion leaves no room for superstition. A man says, "I have never been in a shipwreck," and becoming nervous touches wood. Why is he nervous? He has this paragraph before his eyes: "Among the deceased was Mr. - . By a remarkable coincidence this gentleman had been saying only a few days before that he had never been in a shipwreck. Little did he think that his next voyage would falsify his words so tragically." It occurs to him that he has read paragraphs like that again and again. Perhaps he has. Certainly he has never read a paragraph like this: "Among the deceased was Mr. - . By a remarkable coincidence this gentleman had never made the remark that he had not yet been in a shipwreck." Yet that paragraph could have been written truthfully thousands of times. — A.A. Milne
If you stop painting policemen in order to paint windmills, criticism remains so overpoweringly policeman-conscious that even a windmill is seen as something with arms out, obviously directing the traffic. — A.A. Milne
When stuck in the river, it is best to dive and swim to the bank yourself before someone drops a large stone on your chest in an attempt to hoosh you there. — A.A. Milne
Well, I've got an idea," said Rabbit, "and here it is. We take Tigger for a long explore, somewhere where he's never been, and we lose him there, and next morning we find him again, and
mark my words
he'll be a different Tigger altogether."
"Why?" said Pooh.
"Because he'll be a Humble Tigger. Because he'll be a Sad Tigger, a Melancholy Tigger, a Small and Sorry Tigger, an Oh-Rabbit-I-am-glad-to-see-you Tigger. That's why."
"Will he be glad to see me and Piglet, too?"
"Of course."
"That's good," said Pooh.
"I should hate him to go on being Sad," said Piglet doubtfully.
"Tiggers never go on being Sad," explained Rabbit. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature. — A.A. Milne
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking. — A.A. Milne
Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad. — A.A. Milne
I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a Bear of No Brain at All." "You're the Best Bear in All the World," said Christopher Robin soothingly. "Am I?" said Pooh hopefully. And then he brightened up suddenly. "Anyhow," he said, "it is nearly Luncheon Time." So he went home for it. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
Why does a silly bird go on saying "chiff-chaff" all day long? Is it happiness or hiccups? — A.A. Milne
He was telling an interesting anecdote full of exciting words like "encyclopedia" and "rhododendron". — A.A. Milne
But, of course, it isn't really Good-bye, because the Forest will always be there ... and anybody who is Friendly with Bears can find it. — A.A. Milne
Gone out. Backson. Busy backson. — A.A. Milne
Whereas men of an older school, like myself, smoke for the pleasure of smoking, men of this school smoke for the pleasure of pipe-owning-of selecting which of their many white-spotted pipes they will fill with their specially blended tobacco, of filling the one so chosen, of lighting it, of taking it from the mouth to gaze lovingly at the white spot and thus letting it go out, of lighting it again and letting it go out again, of polishing it up with their own special polisher and putting it to bed, and then the pleasure of beginning all over again with another white-spotted one. — A.A. Milne
I might have known," said Eeyore. "After all, one can't complain. I have my friends. Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. And was it last week or the week before that Rabbit bumped into me and said 'Bother!'. The Social Round. Always something going on. — A.A. Milne
That's right. You'll like Owl. He flew past a day or two ago and noticed me. He didn't actually say anything, mind you, but he knew it was me. Very friendly of him. Encouraging."
Pooh and Piglet shuffled about a little and said, "Well, good-bye, Eeyore" as lingeringly as they could, but they had a long way to go, and wanted to be getting on.
"Good-bye," said Eeyore. "Mind you don't get blown away, little Piglet. You'd be missed. People would say 'Where's little Piglet been blown to?' -- really wanting to know. Well, good-bye. And thank you for happening to pass me. — A.A. Milne
Did I miss?" you asked.
"You didn't exactly miss," said Pooh, "But you missed the balloon."
"I'm so sorry," you said, and you fired again, and this time you hit the balloon and the air came slowly out, and Winnie-the-Pooh floated down to the ground. — A.A. Milne
We'll be friends until forever, just you wait and see — A.A. Milne
I always did whatever I liked," she said, "but now I really can do it. — A.A. Milne
A Fly can't bird, but a bird can fly. — A.A. Milne
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. — A.A. Milne
She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbor: Winter is dead. — A.A. Milne
it all comes of liking honey so much. — A.A. Milne
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? — A.A. Milne