Milne Quotes & Sayings

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

We see portability in electronics being a continuing requirement, higher functionality, better battery life, requiring lower power for the actual electronics. — David Milne

Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it. — A.A. Milne

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

If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together there is something you must always remember ... — A.A. Milne

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

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. — A.A. Milne

How did you fall in, Eeyore?" asked Rabbit, as he dried him with Piglet's handkerchief.
"I didn't," said Eeyore.
"But how
"
"I was BOUNCED," said Eeyore.
"Oo," said Roo excitedly, "did somebody push you?"
"Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by the side of the river
thinking, if any of you know what that means
when I received a loud BOUNCE."
"Oh, Eeyore!" said everybody.
"Are you sure you didn't slip?" asked Rabbit wisely.
"Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the slippery bank of a river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from behind, you slip. What did you think I did? — 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

It's bad enough," said Eeyore, almost breaking down, "being represented myself, what with all that Disney nonsense and then the Internet, and no proper attributions at all, but if everybody else is going to be misrepresented too
"
This was too much for Pooh. "Stay there!" he called to Eeyore, as he turned and hurried back home as quick as he could; for he felt that he must get poor Eeyore a genuine quote of some sort at once, and he could always think of a proper one afterwards. — 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

Nowhere can I think so happily as in a train. I am not inspired; nothing so uncomfortable as that. I am never seized with a sudden idea for a masterpiece, nor form a sudden plan for some new enterprise. My thoughts are just pleasantly reflective. I think of all the good deeds I have done, and (when these give out) of all the good deeds I am going to do. I look out of the window and say lazily to myself, "How jolly to live there"; and a little farther on, "How jolly not to live there." I see a cow, and I wonder what it is like to be a cow, and I wonder whether the cow wonders what it is to be like me; and perhaps, by this time, we have passed on to a sheep, and I wonder if it is more fun being a sheep. My mind wanders on in a way which would annoy Pelman a good deal, but it wanders on quite happily, and the "clankety-clank" of the train adds a very soothing accompaniment. So soothing, indeed, that at any moment I can close my eyes and pass into a pleasant state of sleep. — 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

Australian troops had, at Milne Bay, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. Some of us may forget that, of all the allies, it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army. — William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

Do you know what A means, little Piglet?" "No, Eeyore, I don't." "It means Learning, it means Education, it means all the things that you and Pooh haven't got. That's what A means." "Oh," said Piglet again. "I mean, does it?" he explained quickly. "I'm telling you. People come and go in this Forest, and they say, 'It's only Eeyore, so it doesn't count.' They walk to and fro saying 'Ha ha!' But do they know anything about A? They don't. It's just three sticks to them. But to the Educated - mark this, little Piglet - to the Educated, not meaning Poohs and Piglets, it's a great and glorious A. Not," he added, "just something that anybody can come and breathe on. — A.A. Milne

Making negative assumptions based on a person's weight is never healthy. Overweight or thin, it sends the same damaging message: Your body does not conform. — Melissa Milne

Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the thing you can't hear, and not bothering. — 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

They always take longer than you think. — A.A. Milne

Let's look for dragons, I said to Pooh.
Yes, let's, said Pooh to Me.
We crossed the river and found a few
Yes, those are dragons all right, said Pooh.
As soon as I saw their beaks I knew.
That's what they are, said Pooh, said he.
That's what they are, said Pooh. — A.A. Milne

Lines and Squares
Whenever I walk in a London street,
I'm ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street,
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, "Bears,
Just look how I'm walking in all of the squares!"
And the little bears growl to each other, "He's mine,
As soon as he's silly and steps on a line."
And some of the bigger bears try to pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend;
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk on the lines or squares.
But only the sillies believe their talk;
It's ever so portant how you walk.
And it's ever so jolly to call out, "Bears,
Just watch me walking in all the squares! — A.A. Milne

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. "Well," he said slowly. — A.A. Milne

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. — A.A. Milne

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

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you. — A.A. Milne

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.A. Milne

Watercolour could have been used more by the modernists. It is so direct, and when the white paper convention is accepted, so powerful, even brutal, that it would seem an ideal medium. — David Milne

That's what I call bouncing," said Eeyore. "Taking people by surprise. Very unpleasant habit. I don't mind Tigger being in the Forest," he went on, "because it's a large Forest, and there's plenty of room to bounce in it. But I don't see why he should come into my little corner of it, and bounce there. It isn't as if there was anything very wonderful about my little corner. Of course for people who like cold, wet, ugly bits it is something rather special, but otherwise it's just a corner, and if anybody feels bouncy
— A.A. Milne

I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen. — A.A. Milne

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. — 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

It all comes," said Pooh crossly, "of not having front doors big enough. — A.A. Milne

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

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

But [Pooh] couldn't sleep. The more he tried to sleep the more he couldn't. He tried counting Sheep, which is sometimes a good way of getting to sleep, and, as that was no good, he tried counting Heffalumps. And that was worse. Because every Heffalump that he counted was making straight for a pot of Pooh's honey, and eating it all. For some minutes he lay there miserably, but when the five hundred and eighty-seventh Heffalump was licking its jaws, and saying to itself, "Very good honey this, I don't know when I've tasted better," Pooh could bear it no longer. — 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

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

Shit, the man came here commando. — Alexa 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

If you only live to be 100 than I want to live to be 100 minus one day so I never have to live without you...from whinnie the pooh — Alex Milne

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

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. — 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

...a boy learns better what he teaches himself.... — Christopher Milne

To seem natural rather than to be natural. — 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

The logic of nuclear deterrence gets more and more convoluted the deeper one goes into it. It is assumed, for instance, that the leaders of Russia, in contemplating an attack on the UK, would be sufficiently sane and rational as to weigh up the consequences of a possible retaliatory nuclear strike from the UK and decide on that basis to refrain from attacking. On the other hand, it is assumed that those same leaders would base their sane and rational decision on the likelihood of their counterparts in the UK acting so insanely and irrationally as to be willing to launch nuclear weapons against Russia that would almost certainly bring about their own total self-destruction. — Timmon Milne Wallis

The painter doesn't try to reproduce the scene before him ... he simplifies and eliminates until he knows exactly what stirred him, sets this down in color and line as simply and as powerfully as possible and so translates his impression into an aesthetic emotion. — David Milne

Eeyore", said Owl, "Christopher Robin is giving a party."
"Very interesting," said Eeyore. "I suppose they will be sending me down the odd bits which got trodden on. Kind and Thoughtful. Not at all, don't mention it."
"There is an Invitation for you."
"What's that like?"
"An Invitation!"
"Yes, I heard you. Who dropped it?"
"This isn't something to eat, it's asking you to the party. To-morrow."
Eeyore shook his head slowly.
"You mean Piglet. The little fellow with the exited ears. That's Piglet. I'll tell him."
"No, no!" said Owl, getting quite fussy. "It's you!"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. Christopher Robin said 'All of them! Tell all of them'"
"All of them, except Eeyore?"
"All of them," said Owl sulkily.
"Ah!" said Eeyore. "A mistake, no doubt, but still, I shall come. Only don't blame me when it rains. — A.A. Milne

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? — A.A. Milne

He believed that a teacher should stimulate and guide the student with questions, so that the student not only was exposed to the answer but remembered how the answer was reached. — Robert D. Milne

Christopher Robin is going.
At least I think he is.
Where?
Nobody knows.
But he is going -
I mean he goes
(To rhyme with "knows")
Do we care?
(To rhyme with "where")
We do
Very much.
(I haven't got a rhyme for that "is" in the second line yet.
Bother).
(Now I haven't got a rhyme for bother. Bother)
Those two bothers will have to rhyme with each other
Buther.
The fact is this is more difficult
than I thought,
I ought -
(Very good indeed)
I ought
to begin again,
But it is easier
To stop.
Christopher Robin, good-bye,
I
(Good)
I
And all your friends
Sends -
I mean all your friend
Send -
(Very awkward this, it keeps going wrong.)
Well, anyhow, we send
Our love
END. — A.A. Milne

Mind over matter, will make the Pooh unfatter. — A.A. Milne

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

Let me do it for you," said Pooh kindly. So he reached up and knocked at the door. "I have just seen Eeyore," he began, "and poor Eeyore is in a Very Sad Condition, because it's his birthday, and nobody has taken any notice of it, and he's very Gloomy - you know what Eeyore is - and there he was, and - What a long time whoever lives here is answering this door." And he knocked again. "But Pooh," said Piglet, "it's your own house!" "Oh!" said Pooh. "So it is," he said. "Well, let's go in. — A.A. Milne

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. — A.A. Milne

When speaking to a Bear of Very Little Brain, remember that long words may bother him. — A.A. Milne

Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. — A.A. Milne

Tut-tut, it looks like rain. — A.A. Milne

It's so much more friendly with two. — A.A. Milne

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. — A.A. Milne

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

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. — 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

Well, we are expanding in all of our segments of the market. — David Milne

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

Paula Milne was really the first thing that drew me to 'The Politician's Husband.' — David Tennant

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

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. — A.A. Milne

I do remember,' explained Christopher Robin, 'only Pooh doesn't very well, so that's why he likes having it told to him again. Because then it's a real story and not just a remembering. — A.A. Milne

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

Country of Origin labelling is something that consumers really want, and I think it's critical to support Australian farmers. — Christine Milne

Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake. — 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 one can tell me, Nobody knows, Where the wind comes from, Where the wind goes. — A.A. Milne

We are also fortunate in being in quite a sheltered environment, in terms of people moving on to do other things, because there are relatively few companies in Scotland that are looking for the skill set that we've developed. — David Milne

They have no imagination. A tail is just a tail to them, just a little something extra in the back. — A.A. Milne

The growth of a company like ours tends to be a relatively steady because, like some of the other successful mixed signal companies, we have a wide range of products servicing a wide range of end applications. — David Milne

Christopher Robin nodded. "Then there's only one thing to be done," he said. "We shall have to wait for you to get thin again." "How long does getting thin take?" asked Pooh anxiously. "About a week, I should think. — 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'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost. — A.A. Milne

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. — A.A. Milne

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

Well, did Owl always have a letter-box in his ceiling?"
"Has he?"
"Yes, look."
"I can't," said Pooh. "I'm face downwards under something, and that, Piglet, is a very bad position for looking at ceilings."
"Well, he has, Pooh."
"Perhaps he's changed it," said Pooh. "Just for a change. — A.A. Milne

It's a little Anxious," Piglet said to himself, "to be a
Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water. Christopher
Robin and Pooh could escape by Climbing Trees, and Kanga could
escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and
Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by
by
Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by
water and I can't do anything. — A.A. Milne

The other day I met a man who didn't know where Tripoli was. Tripoli happened to come into the conversation, and he was evidently at a loss. "Let's see," he said. "Tripoli is just down by the - er - you know. What's the name of that place?" "That's right," I answered, "just opposite, Thingumabob. I could show you in a minute on a map. It's near - what do they call it?" At this moment the train stopped, and I got out and went straight home to look at my atlas. — A.A. Milne

It was the United States, after all, which poured resources into the 1980s war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, at a time when girls could go to school and women to work. Bin Laden and his mojahedin were armed and trained by the CIA and MI6, as Afghanistan was turned into a wasteland and its communist leader Najibullah left hanging from a Kabul lamp — Seumas 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

We are quite open, however, to looking at acquisitions and there are opportunities that we periodically consider. and I think that may be something we do in the future, but I must say that there is no commitment to that at the present time in any form or size. — David Milne

The truth is that Fate does not go out of its way to be dramatic. If you or I had the power of life and death in our hands, we should no doubt arrange some remarkably bright and telling effects. A man who spilt the salt callously would be drowned next week in the Dead Sea, and a couple who married in May would expire simultaneously in the May following. But Fate cannot worry to think out all the clever things that we should think out. It goes about its business solidly and unromantically, and by the ordinary laws of chance it achieves every now and then something startling and romantic. Superstition thrives on the fact that only the accidental dramas are reported. — A.A. Milne

But, when we started our product portfolio, we focused the mixed signal requirements first for image processing devices and then in audio applications, targeting our technology into the growing use of digital technology in consumer markets. — David Milne

The wind was against them now, and Piglet's ears streamed behind him like banners as he fought his way along, and it seemed hours before he got them into the shelter of the Hundred Acre Wood and they stood up straight again, to listen, a little nervously, to the roaring of the gale among the treetops.
'Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?'
'Supposing it didn't,' said Pooh after careful thought. — Milne, A. A.

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

This effort notwithstanding, however, certain British institutions were not be trifled with: "Sent hands to tea at 3:30 with Indefatigable to go to tea after us," Kennedy recorded in his action report. By 3:45 p.m., Goeben and Breslau were pulling away into a misty haze; at 4:00, Goeben was only just in sight against the horizon. Dublin held on, but at 7:37 p.m. the light cruiser signaled, "Goeben out of sight now, can only see smoke; still daylight." By nine o'clock, the smoke had disappeared, daylight was gone, and Goeben and Breslau had vanished. At 9:52 p.m., on Milne's instructions, Dublin gave up the chase. At 1:15 a.m., a signal from Malta informed the Mediterranean Fleet that war had begun. — Robert K. Massie

How lucky I am to have known somebody and something that saying goodbye to is so damned awful. — Evans G. Valens

Some poeople care too much....I think its called Loved — A.A. Milne

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. — A.A. Milne

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