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Bisy Backson
In the Winnie-the-Pooh books, Christopher Robin is a young boy who lives near the Hundred Acre Wood and befriends Pooh, Piglet, and the other animals. Notably, he helps rescue them when they run into trouble, and he embodies the Taoist principle that nothingness is the path to wisdom when he says that his favorite thing to do is wander around doing nothing. He was based on the author A.A. Milne’s young son Christopher Robin Milne.
Christopher Robin Quotes in The Tao of Pooh
The The Tao of Pooh quotes below are all either spoken by Christopher Robin or refer to Christopher Robin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
That Sort of Bear
Quotes
The two Fearless Rescues just mentioned bring us to one of the most important terms of Taoism: Tz’u, which can be translated as “caring” or “compassion” and which is based upon the character for heart. In the sixty-seventh chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse named it as his “first treasure,” and then wrote, “From caring comes courage.” We might add that from it also comes wisdom. It’s rather significant, we think, that those who have no compassion have no wisdom. Knowledge, yes; cleverness, maybe; wisdom, no. A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care. Wisdom does.
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Nowhere and Nothing
Quotes
What Chuang-tse, Christopher Robin, and Pooh are describing is the Great Secret, the key that unlocks the doors of wisdom, happiness, and truth. What is that magic, mysterious something? Nothing. To the Taoist, Nothing is something, and Something—at least the sort of thing that many consider to be important—is really nothing at all.
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Get the entire The Tao of Pooh LitChart as a printable PDF.
Christopher Robin Quotes in The Tao of Pooh
The The Tao of Pooh quotes below are all either spoken by Christopher Robin or refer to Christopher Robin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
That Sort of Bear
Quotes
The two Fearless Rescues just mentioned bring us to one of the most important terms of Taoism: Tz’u, which can be translated as “caring” or “compassion” and which is based upon the character for heart. In the sixty-seventh chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse named it as his “first treasure,” and then wrote, “From caring comes courage.” We might add that from it also comes wisdom. It’s rather significant, we think, that those who have no compassion have no wisdom. Knowledge, yes; cleverness, maybe; wisdom, no. A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care. Wisdom does.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Nowhere and Nothing
Quotes
What Chuang-tse, Christopher Robin, and Pooh are describing is the Great Secret, the key that unlocks the doors of wisdom, happiness, and truth. What is that magic, mysterious something? Nothing. To the Taoist, Nothing is something, and Something—at least the sort of thing that many consider to be important—is really nothing at all.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
