Pooh Bear or Faux Fur? A Quiz

[steepholm]

The following quotations are all taken from a site devoted to inspirational Winnie-the-Pooh quotations, where they are all attributed to A. A. Milne. Most, of course, are entirely spurious, but there are three* genuine quotations hidden in with the rest. Which three?

Piglet: “How do you spell ‘love’?”
Pooh: “You don’t spell it... you feel it.”

“Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.”

“Love is taking a few steps backward, maybe even more... to give way to the happiness of the person you love.”

“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.”

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.”

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.’

“I wonder what Piglet is doing,” thought Pooh. “I wish I were there to be doing it, too.”

“‘We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet.
‘Even longer,’ Pooh answered.”

“‘I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,’ said Pooh.
‘There, there,’ said Piglet. ‘I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.'”

“You’re braver than you believe and stronger and smarter than you think.”

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”

“The things that make me different are the things that make me.”

“Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.”

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

“Think it over, think it under.”

“I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.”

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”

Bonus question: of the spurious quotations, which were the most and the least Milne-esque?

* Just possibly more than three, but I could only find three in the Pooh books.

Comments

[colorwheel]

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.’

is one of them?

[steepholm]

It is indeed. Actually, set in the context of those other rather saccharine-yet-lumpen (sugar lumpen?) quotes, this one too began to take on a Hallmark quality, and I was quite surprised to find it was genuine.

[colorwheel]

the fake ones are indeed saccarine and lumpen. the "sure of you" quote is milne being mushy. which he did sometimes, and i like it. (but i am mushy.) and you're right, it needs to be in its context, not surrounded by the fake ones.

[ethelmay]

The "sidled" is a giveaway. The fake ones don't use that kind of vocabulary.

[calimac]

The pile of nausea is so high I feel disinclined to dig through it to find the least nauseating, which will be it.

[steepholm]

You certainly hit on the correct triage strategy.

[redbird]

"I just wanted to be sure of you" and "my spelling is Wobbly" are real; I only know the first one because Maupin used it for the title of one of his Tales of the City books.

[slemslempike]

I know the second because I had it on a postcard. And I think the poetry and hums one is Milne, because the faux-Milne quote would surely have used something more soppy than the real terms.

[slemslempike]

And of the others, I think “I wonder what Piglet is doing,” thought Pooh. “I wish I were there to be doing it, too.” seems quite Milnish.

And this: "“Love is taking a few steps backward, maybe even more... to give way to the happiness of the person you love.” " is the least for me.

[steepholm]

I agree it seems quite Milnish, but I've been unable to find it in Milne, so unless someone sources it I'm calling it a fake for now.

And yes, the other one is not only horribly expressed, but expresses a truly screwed-up notion of what love is. (Cf. The Rainbow Fish, etc.)

[steepholm]

Yes, poetry and hums are real!

[steepholm]

Right and right.

[cyphomandra]

I HATE the faux-Pooh quote industry. They are all so nauseatingly sickly.

(and now I will get one wrong) - Sure of You is definitely Pooh, and I think the wobbly spelling and the river are the other two.

[ethelmay]

The river one is misquoted, but is at least a recognizable distortion of actual Milne.

[steepholm]

Ah, several of the ones on the site were distortions of real quotations, and I tried to cut those out as confusing the issue, but it seems I missed that one. What's the real quotation?

[ethelmay]

From The House at Pooh Corner: “By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, “There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” But all the little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late.”

[steepholm]

That makes sense. It's the ponderous "Rivers know this" that seems most un-Poohlike. He might as well have said, "Consider ye the rivers of the field..."

[ethelmay]

Rivers know this: Jane Eyre not love him. Rivers go India. Die honorably. Tarzan has spoken.

[steepholm]

Right about Sure of You and the Wobbly Spelling, but I have not been able to verify the River one, so I'm calling it a fake for now.

[colorwheel]

i hate the faux-pooh quote industry too! and i also hate the phenomenon of using an illustration of the pooh characters but putting the caption as "fuck this bullshit" or something political and contemporary..

[shewhomust]

If Tonstant Weader Fwowed up at the real thing, it's probably as well she didn't see the fakes...

[steepholm]

Indeed. But clearly the fakers read Milne in much the same way as Dorothy Parker (even if they embraced it while she puked on it), and I'm not sure that speaks well for the ear or either party.

[poliphilo]

It seems a fairly way of proceeding to exclude anything that includes the words "love" or "dreams".

I don't think Milne was ever knowingly inspirational.

[steepholm]

That is indeed a good rule of thumb. Christopher Robin sometimes says that he loves Pooh, but never feels compelled to define that emotion by way of a homespun metaphor.

[ethelmay]

I'd say the "I don't feel very much like Pooh today" one is least like Milne. And oh, Maud, the possible constipation jokes.