A. A. Milne
writer, poet, novelist, children's writer, screenwriter, military officer, prose writer, playwright, essayist, short story writer
Read on Wikipedia1882 – 1956
All Quotes by A. A. Milne
“To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.”
“Tell the innocent visitor from another world that two people were killed at Serajevo, and that the best that Europe could do about it was to kill eleven million more.”
“I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking.”
“They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace — Says Alice.”
“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think about it.”
“"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." And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.”
“Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o'clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and when Rabbit said, "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."”
“"What?" said Piglet, with a jump. And then, to show that he hadn't been frightened, he jumped up and down once or twice more in an exercising sort of way.”
“I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a Bear of No Brain at All.”
“These notices had been written by Christopher Robin, who was the only one in the forest who could spell; for Owl, wise though he was in many ways, able to read and write and spell his own name WOL, yet somehow went all to pieces over delicate words like MEASLES and BUTTEREDTOAST.”
“I'm giving this to Eeyore," he explained, "as a present. What are you going to give?" "No," said Pooh. "That would not be a good plan.”
“It was just as if somebody inside him were saying, "Now then, Pooh, time for a little something."”
“Because my spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”
“It is hard to be brave," said Piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal.”
“Owl was telling Kanga an Interesting Anecdote full of long words like Encyclopædia and Rhododendron to which Kanga wasn't listening.”
“It's a little Anxious," he said to himself, "to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water.”
“Kanga said to Roo, "Drink up your milk first, dear, and talk afterwards." So Roo, who was drinking his milk, tried to say that he could do both at once . . . and had to be patted on the back and dried for quite a long time afterwards.”
“"H–hup!" said Roo accidentally. "Was it me?" asked Roo, a little surprised.”
“And how are you?", said Winnie-the-Pooh. (...)"Not very how", he said. "I don't seem to have felt at all how for a long time.”
“Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie.”
“"Good morning, Pooh Bear", said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning", he said. "Which I doubt", said he.”
“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin.”
“How sweet to be a cloudFloating in the blue.”
“Hello Rabbit, is that you?""Let's pretend it isn't", said Rabbit, "and see what happens.”
“Isn't it funnyI wonder why he does?”
“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.”
“We can't all and some of us don't. That's all there is to it.”
“When I was One,So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.”
“When we asked Pooh what the opposite of an Introduction was, he said "The what of a what?" which didn't help us as much as we had hoped, but luckily Owl kept his head and told us that the Opposite of an Introduction, my dear Pooh, was a Contradiction; and, as he is very good at long words, I am sure that that's what it is.”
“The more he looked inside the more Piglet wasn't there.”
“Nearly eleven o'clock," said Pooh happily. "You're just in time for a little smackerel of something.”
“"Shall I look too?" said Pooh, who was beginning to feel a little eleven o'clockish. And he found a small tin of condensed milk, and something seemed to tell him that Tiggers didn't like this, so he took it into a corner by itself, and went with it to see that nobody interrupted it.”
“Pooh said good-bye affectionately to his fourteen pots of honey, and hoped they were fifteen; and he and Rabbit went out into the Forest.”
“Piglet looked up, and looked away again. And he felt so Foolish and Uncomfortable that he had almost decided to run away to Sea and be a Sailor, when suddenly he saw something.”
“One day when Pooh was thinking, he thought he would go and see Eeyore, because he hadn't seen him since yesterday.”
“Now it happened that Kanga had felt rather motherly that morning, and Wanting to Count Things — like Roo's vests, and how many pieces of soap there were left, and the two clean spots in Tigger's feeder.”
“Yes," said Tigger, "they're very good flyers, Tiggers are. Strornry good flyers.”
“Piglet took Pooh's arm, in case Pooh was frightened.”
“And he respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anyone 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.”
“Owl took Christopher Robin's notice from Rabbit and looked at it nervously. He could spell his own name WOL, and he could spell Tuesday so that you knew it wasn't Wednesday, and he could read quite comfortably when you weren't looking over his shoulder and saying "Well?" all the time, and he could—”
“"I've got a sort of idea," said Pooh at last, "but I don't suppose it's a very good one." "I don't suppose it is either," said Eeyore.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Lucky we know the forest so well, or we might get lost," said Rabbit half an hour later, and he gave the careless laugh which you give when you know the Forest so well that you can't get lost."Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”
“...and then he and Roo pushed each other about in a friendly way, and Tigger accidentally knocked over one or two chairs by accident, and Roo accidentally knocked over one on purpose, and Kanga said, "Now then, run along."”
“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 on the way.”
“You only blinched inside," said Pooh, "and that's the bravest way for a Very Small Animal not to blinch that there is.”
“"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.”
“I'm not going to do just nothing anymore.""Well, not so much. They don't let you.”
“I shouldn't be surprised if it hailed a good deal tomorrow", Eeyore was saying. "Blizzards and what-not. Being fine today doesn't mean anything. It has no sig - what's that word? Well, it has none of that. It's just a small piece of weather.”
“If I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will grow up into a beehive.”
“Then Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh walked hand in hand down the forest path and they said goodbye. So they went off together. But 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 and waiting.”
“That's what Jagulars always do", said Pooh, much interested. "They call 'Help! Help!' and then when you look up, they drop on you.”
“"They wanted to come in after the pounds", explained Pooh, "so I let them. It's the best way to write poetry, letting things come".”
“You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
“Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.”