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Eeyore
In the Winnie-the-Pooh books, Owl is a scholarly old owl who lives in the Hundred Acre Wood. He thinks he’s highly intelligent, and everyone seems to agree with him. But actually, Owl’s abstract knowledge is pointless, and he sabotages himself by over-thinking everything. For instance, Rabbit respects Owl’s spelling abilities, but Owl believes that “Tuesday” is spelled with a “Two” and comes before “Thirdsday.” He uses complicated words like “customary procedure” (instead of “the Thing to Do”), which just confuses Pooh and his friends. He spends his free time writing about “Aardvarks and their Aberrations” and thinking about how to spell words like “Marmalade”—in fact, he’s so busy thinking about this that he barely notices when his house blows down. Hoff uses Owl to argue that knowledge can actually distract people from the path to wisdom and that scholars who study Taoism aren’t as trustworthy a source as actual practicing Taoists.
Owl Quotes in The Tao of Pooh
The The Tao of Pooh quotes below are all either spoken by Owl or refer to Owl. 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:
).
Spelling Tuesday
Quotes
Lao-tse wrote, “The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise.”
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On Monday, when the sun is hot,
I wonder to myself a lot:
“Now is it true, or is it not,
That what is which and which is what?”
On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,
The feeling on me grows and grows
That hardly anybody knows
If those are these or these are those.
On Wednesday, when the sky is blue
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it’s true
That who is what and what is who.
On Thursday, when it starts to freeze,
And hoarfrost twinkles on the trees,
How very readily one sees
That these are whose—but whose are these?
On Friday…
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The Now of Pooh
Quotes
Within each of us there is an Owl, a Rabbit, an Eeyore, and a Pooh. For too long, we have chosen the way of Owl and Rabbit. Now, like Eeyore, we complain about the results. But that accomplishes nothing. If we are smart, we will choose the way of Pooh. As if from far away, it calls to us with the voice of a child’s mind. It may be hard to hear at times, but it is important just the same, because without it, we will never find our way through the Forest.
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Get the entire The Tao of Pooh LitChart as a printable PDF.
Owl Quotes in The Tao of Pooh
The The Tao of Pooh quotes below are all either spoken by Owl or refer to Owl. 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:
).
Spelling Tuesday
Quotes
Lao-tse wrote, “The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
On Monday, when the sun is hot,
I wonder to myself a lot:
“Now is it true, or is it not,
That what is which and which is what?”
On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,
The feeling on me grows and grows
That hardly anybody knows
If those are these or these are those.
On Wednesday, when the sky is blue
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it’s true
That who is what and what is who.
On Thursday, when it starts to freeze,
And hoarfrost twinkles on the trees,
How very readily one sees
That these are whose—but whose are these?
On Friday…
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The Now of Pooh
Quotes
Within each of us there is an Owl, a Rabbit, an Eeyore, and a Pooh. For too long, we have chosen the way of Owl and Rabbit. Now, like Eeyore, we complain about the results. But that accomplishes nothing. If we are smart, we will choose the way of Pooh. As if from far away, it calls to us with the voice of a child’s mind. It may be hard to hear at times, but it is important just the same, because without it, we will never find our way through the Forest.
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