Here are the 37 best handpicked poems from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame:
From “The past was like a bad dream; the future was all happy holiday as I moved Southwards week by week, easily, lazily, lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call!” to “Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.”
So if you want the best quotes from “The Wind in the Willows,” then you’re in the right place.
Let’s get started!
My Favorite “The Wind in the Willows” Quote
#1
“The past was like a bad dream; the future was all happy holiday as I moved Southwards week by week, easily, lazily, lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call!”
— The Wind in the Willows
I really love how the speaker talked about the future with so much anticipation and optimism that it was even viewed as a ‘happy holiday.’
Despite the optimism, the speaker has not forgotten about being realistic by saying that he will enjoy the present easily and lazily but still acknowledging the responsibilities placed on his shoulders.
Overall, this quote is my favorite because of its hopeful tone and one that mirrors the attitude of how one should move on from the past, face the future, and relish every step we take in the present.
Best Handpicked Quotes From “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame
#2
“Today, to him gazing south with a new-born need stirring in his heart, the clear sky over their long low outline seemed to pulsate with promise; today, the unseen was everything. the unknown the only real fact of life.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#3
“Absorbed in the new scents, the sounds, and the sunlight…”
— The Wind in the Willows
#4
“As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden-plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their way, to last for a lifetime.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#5
“He had got down to the bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#6
“For this is the last best gift that the kindly demi-god is careful to bestow on those to whom he has revealed himself in their helping: the gift of forgetfulness. Lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure, and the great haunting memory should spoil all the after-lives of little animals helped out of difficulties, in order that they should be happy and lighthearted as before.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#7
“The moon, serene and detached in a cloudless sky, did what she could, though so far off, to help them in their quest; till her hour came and she sank earthwards reluctantly, and left them, and mystery once more held field and river.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#8
“Since early morning he had been swimming in the river, in company with his friends the ducks. And when the ducks stood on their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, just under where their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced to come to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite all you feel when your head is under water.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#9
“Independence is all very well, but we animals never allow our friends to make fools of themselves beyond a certain limit.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#10
“There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger’s origin and preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#11
“We shall creep out quietly into the butler’s pantry–” cried the Mole. “–with out pistols and swords and sticks–” shouted ther Rat. “–and rush in upon them,” said Badger. “–and whack ’em, and whack ’em, and whack ’em!” cried the Toad in ecstasy, running round and round the room, and jumping over the chairs.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#12
“Take the Adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes!’ ‘Tis but a banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of the old life and into the new! Then some day, some day long hence, jog home here if you will, when the cup has been drained and the play has been played, and sit down by your quiet river with a store of goodly memories for company.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#13
“It seemed a place where heroes could fitly feast after victory, where weary harvesters could line up in scores along the table and keep their Harvest Home with mirth and song, or where two or three friends of simple tastes could sit about as they pleased and eat and smoke and talk in comfort and contentment.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#14
“Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror – indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy – but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august presence was very, very near.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#15
“The smell of that buttered toast simply spoke to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cozy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#16
“Toad, with no one to check his statements or to criticize in an unfriendly spirit, rather let himself go. Indeed, much that he related belonged more properly to the category of what-might-have-happened-had-I-only-thought-of-it-in-time-instead-of-ten-minutes-afterwards. Those are always the best and raciest adventures; and why should they not be truly ours, as much as the somewhat inadequate things that really come off?.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#17
“Everything seems asleep, and yet going on all the time. It is a goodly life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are strong enough to lead it!”
— The Wind in the Willows
#18
“It’ll be all right, my fine fellow,” said the Otter. “I’m coming along with you, and I know every path blindfold; and if there’s a head that needs to be punched, you can confidently rely upon me to punch it.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#19
“There seemed to be no end to this wood, and no beginning, and no difference in it, and, worse of all, no way out.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#20
“When tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#21
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
#22
“Secrets had an immense attraction to him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when he went and told another animal, after having faithfully promised not to.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#23
“It’s not the sort of night for bed, anyhow.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#24
“Somehow, it soon seemed taken for granted by all three of them that the trip was a settled thing; and the Rat, though still unconvinced in his mind, allowed his good-nature to over-ride his personal objections.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#25
“The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#26
“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wild World,” said the Rat. “And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or to me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#27
“Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, Those soft touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all one way.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#28
“No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#29
“But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, but can recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty in it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#30
“Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing!”
— The Wind in the Willows
#31
“After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#32
“All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#33
“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.”
— The Wind in the Willows
#35
“Glorious, stirring sight! The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here today—in next week tomorrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped—always somebody else’s horizon! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!”
— The Wind in the Willows
