Previous
Piglet
In the Winnie-the-Pooh books, Rabbit is a sociable, energetic, obsessive, and bossy animal who is always trying to organize and direct everyone else. Much like Owl, he tends to think that he’s smarter than his companions, but in reality, his cleverness makes him foolish. In fact, if Pooh’s defining characteristic is his simplicity, then Rabbit’s is his cleverness: he’s always hatching unnecessarily complex plans, and they tend to backfire. For example, when he tries to get out of the forest and go home, he keeps trying new routes and ending up exactly where he started. In a way, Rabbit is a classic Bisy Backson—he never solves any problems because he’s so busy running around and looking for complicated solutions that he never sees the simple solutions that are right in front of him. In one notable scene, he runs around to ask all the other characters if they’ve seen the Uncarved Block—because he hasn’t realized that it’s a concept, not a piece of wood. Hoff uses Rabbit to show why simplicity and instinct are better tools for living a wise, happy life than cleverness and analysis.
Rabbit Quotes in The Tao of Pooh
The The Tao of Pooh quotes below are all either spoken by Rabbit or refer to Rabbit. 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:
).
The Pooh Way Quotes
It’s not the Clever Mind that’s responsible when things work out. It’s the mind that sees what’s in front of it, and follows the nature of things.
When you work with Wu Wei, you put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don’t belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn’t try. It doesn’t think about it. It just does it.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
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.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Tao of Pooh LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Rabbit Character Timeline in The Tao of Pooh
The timeline below shows where the character Rabbit appears in The Tao of Pooh. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Tao of Who?
In another passage, Rabbit tries to lead Pooh and Piglet home, but keeps coming back to the same sand...
(full context)
...Concerned, Pooh insists that “I didn’t do it.” He blames Piglet, then they both blame Rabbit, who says he also hasn’t seen the Uncarved Block. Pooh and Piglet admit that they...
(full context)
...Pooh and Piglet have plenty of fun when they check on Eeyore’s house and wish Rabbit “a Very Happy Thursday.” Hoff concludes that the simple state of P’u lets people enjoy...
(full context)
Spelling Tuesday
In Winnie-the-Pooh, Rabbit respects Owl because he knows how to spell “Tuesday.” But in an imagined conversation with...
(full context)
...that he’s better than Pooh and Piglet because he’s capital-E “Educated.” But he’s surprised when Rabbit knows “A,” and he bitterly kicks around his sticks because he’s no longer special. Piglet...
(full context)
Cottleston Pie
Rabbit’s clever plans always fail, Hoff argues, because cleverness is based on shallow judgments that don’t...
(full context)
...and “Unbounce yourself.” This is a reference to another passage in the Pooh books: after Rabbit, Piglet, and Roo rescue Eeyore from the river, Eeyore claims that someone (Tigger) “BOUNCED” him...
(full context)
The Pooh Way
...them. It’s like the scene in The House at Pooh Corner in which Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, and Roo find Eeyore floating down the river, waiting to be rescued. Pooh and Rabbit...
(full context)
Hoff takes another example from the Pooh books: the search for the Very Small Beetle. Rabbit organizes and directs everyone but Pooh, who accidentally steps on Piglet, wonders what’s going on,...
(full context)
...with one more: “What runs around all day without getting anywhere?” Pooh guesses that it’s Rabbit, but Hoff won’t reveal the answer until the next chapter.
(full context)
Bisy Backson
In A House at Pooh Corner, Rabbit goes to visit Christopher Robin, but he isn’t home. Christopher has left a note that...
(full context)
...active” life. Many fill their lives with sports and treat exercise as work. The out-of-breath Rabbit visits Hoff and explains that he’s been running around to visit Owl, Roo, and Tigger,...
(full context)
...“GONE OUT / BACK SOON,” but rather “BACK OUT / GONE SOON.” In the book, Rabbit and Pooh wonder where Christopher Robin went and what he’s looking for. A reward, suggests...
(full context)
...up bitter and unhappy. Pooh comments that these people “burn their toast a lot.” Then, Rabbit visits and impatiently reports that all of Roo’s blocks are “carved and painted.” He decides...
(full context)
Rabbit and Eeyore visit Hoff and Pooh. Eeyore explains the difference between a swamp and a...
(full context)
That Sort of Bear
...made up. This chapter is about “enjoying life and being Special.” In the Pooh books, Rabbit takes Piglet and Pooh on an adventure. Piglet and Pooh worry that they’ll be useless...
(full context)
The Now of Pooh
...follow Tao, too, if they learn to hear that voice. Everyone has “an Owl, a Rabbit, an Eeyore, and a Pooh” within them. But most people live like Owl and Rabbit—and...
(full context)
