Tao Of Pooh Quotes

You’d be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are.

A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care, wisdom does.

We simply need to believe in the power that’s within us, and use it.

A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning.

If people were superior to animals, they’d take good care of them,” said Pooh.

Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet.

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

As any old Taoist walking out of the woods can tell you, simple-minded does not necessarily mean stupid.

Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and unamusing way. They provide a lot of information. It’s just that there is Something More, and that Something More is what life is really all about.

Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.

But isn’t the knowledge that comes from experience more valuable than the knowledge that doesn’t? It seems fairly obvious to some of us that a lot of scholars need to go outside and sniff around – walk through the grass, talk to the animals. That sort of thing.

The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can’t save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.

Pooh is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded.

Cleverness, after all, has its limitations. Its mechanical judgments and clever remarks tend to prove inaccurate with passing time, because it doesn’t look very deeply into things to begin with.

A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.

A Fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.

Sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of The Vinegar Tasters.

While Eeyore frets … … and Piglet hesitates … and Rabbit calculates … and Owl pontificates …Pooh just is.

Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, ‘This isn’t supposed to be happening this way,’ and trying harder to make it happen some other way.

A way of life that keeps saying ‘Around the next corner, above the next step,’ works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good.

When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

“What’s that?” the Unbeliever asked.
“Wisdom from the Western Taoist,” I said.
“It sounds like something from Winnie-the-Pooh,” he said.
“It is,” I said.
“That’s not about Taoism,” he said.
“Oh, yes it is,” I said.

When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.

Enjoy the simple, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work.

The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don’t look clearly and objectively at situations, they don’t recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.

To know the way, we go the way, we do the way. The way we do, the things we do, it’s all there in front of you. But if you try too hard to see it, you’ll only become confused. I am me and you are you. As you can see; but when you do the things that you can do, you will find the way. The way will follow you.

The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not.