Literary Birthday – 18 January – A. A. Milne

A. A. Milne was born 18 January 1882, and died 31 January 1956.

A. A. Milne Quotes

1. To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.
2. 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.
3. You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say.
4. Organising is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.
5. Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
6. The difficulty in the way of writing a children’s play is that Barrie was born too soon. Many people must have felt the same about Shakespeare. We who came later have no chance. What fun to have been Adam, and to have had the whole world of plots and jokes and stories at one’s disposal.
7. Bores can be divided into two classes; those who have their own particular subject, and those who do not need a subject.
8. Ideas may drift into other minds, but they do not drift my way. I have to go and fetch them. I know no work manual or mental to equal the appalling heart-breaking anguish of fetching an idea from nowhere.
9. No sensible author wants anything but praise.
10. Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

Source for image: Emil Otto Hoppé, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A. A. Milne was a British author, best known for his books about Winnie-the-Pooh. Milne was also a successful playwright. He continued writing detective novels, articles and plays for almost 30 years after Pooh’s first appearance.

by Amanda Patterson

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