Winnie the Pooh; Silly Old Bear

“At first, Winnie-the-Pooh wasn’t called Winnie-the-Pooh. He had several names: Big Bear, Mr Edward, and Teddy Bear. Even A.A. Milne was not sure where his unusual name came from! The story goes that in 1921, the one-year-old Christopher Robin went on holiday with his parents to a cottage in the Sussex village of Poling. There was a lake nearby, where Christopher Robin would feed a swan. He called the swan ‘Pooh’, and somehow this name became attached to his teddy bear, too.”

Anybody who knows me will know that I adore Winnie the Pooh. I've had the books since I was young, and I've always loved them. With the release of the new teaser trailer for Christopher Robin, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to dig the books back out and have another look through them. It seemed silly to try and do a review, because I just wouldn't be able to write anything to do justice to what the stories and characters mean to me. So instead, I decided to pick out a few of my favourite quotes, and share them in this post.

The characters of Pooh Bear and his friends are all so endearing, I find it hard to imagine anybody not liking them, and I think A.A. Milne created such a perfect world for a child to escape to. There's such an innocence to the stories, and especially to the character of Pooh himself, that make them a really wonderful read, and I couldn't help but smile as I read the stories again. I hope you enjoy reading through these quotes as much as I enjoyed reading back through my own books.

“Christopher Robin looked after him lovingly, and said to himself, 'Silly old Bear!'”

- Winnie the Pooh

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“‘Hallo!’ said Pooh, in case there was anything outside.

‘Hallo!’ said Whatever-it-was.

‘Oh!’ said Pooh. ‘Hallo!’

‘Hallo!’

‘Oh, there you are!’ said Pooh. ‘Hallo!’

‘Hallo!’ said the Strange Animal, wondering how long this was going on.

Pooh was just going to say ‘Hallo!’ for the fourth time when he thought that he wouldn’t, so he said, ‘Who is it?’ instead.

‘Me,’ said a voice.

‘Oh!’ said Pooh. ‘Well, come here.’

So Whatever-it-was came here, and in the light of the candle he and Pooh looked at each other.

‘I’m Pooh,’ said Pooh.

‘I’m Tigger.’”

- The House at Pooh Corner

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“Isn’t it funny

How a bear likes honey?
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I wonder why he does?”

- Winnie the Pooh

“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.'"


- Winnie the Pooh

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“A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at.
But do you think it worries him
To know that he is far from slim?
No, just the other way about -
He’s proud of being short and stout.”

Excerpt from Teddy Bear, a poem in When We Were Very Young

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“Piglet thought that they ought to have a Reason for going to see everybody, like Looking for Small or Organizing an Expodition, if Pooh could think of something.

Pooh could.

‘We’ll go because it’s Thursday,’ he said, ‘and we’ll go to wish everybody a Very Happy Thursday. Come on, Piglet.’”

- The House at Pooh Corner

“‘Eeyore, what are you doing down there?” said Rabbit.

“‘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.’”

- The House at Pooh Corner

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“Wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,
There’s always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
'Where are you going to-day?' 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.”

Excerpt from Us Two, a poem in Now We Are Six

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“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.”

- The House at Pooh Corner