- 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 writer wants something more than money for his work: he wants permanence.
- Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
- Bores can be divided into two classes; those who have their own particular subject, and those who do not need a subject.
- Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
- Don’t underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the thing you can’t hear, and not bothering.
- Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad.
- I am sure of this: that no one can write a book which children will like unless he write it for himself first.
- 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.
- 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.
- If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name.
- 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.
- 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.
- It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words, like ‘What about lunch?’
- My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.
- Never forget me, because if I thought you would, I’d never leave.
- No sensible author wants anything but praise.
- One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
- Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.
- Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
- Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.
- 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.
- 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.
- Tiggers don’t like honey.
- To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.
- 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.
- What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.
- You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
- You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say.
Quotes by A. A. Milne
Quotes by A. A. Milne