Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you

Not A. A. Milne — a modern anonymous line A. A. Milne (falsely credited) 1882–1956 · English author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

This exact wording appears in none of Milne’s books. Quote Investigator found “currently there is no substantive evidence that A. A. Milne employed this quotation,” and traces the earliest instance of this precise phrasing only to a Mount Carmel, Illinois newspaper in November 1999. The underlying sentiment was expressed decades earlier by a man named Tom Phillips in 1917.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you” Attributed to A. A. Milne / Winnie-the-Pooh, but found in none of his books; the exact wording is traced only to a 1999 newspaper, and the idea to a 1917 verse by Tom Phillips.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to A. A. Milne. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of A. A. Milne — English playwright, novelist & creator of Winnie-the-Pooh. Theme: "If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source trail

Credited to
A. A. Milne / Winnie-the-Pooh
Found in Milne’s works
No — not in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) or The House at Pooh Corner (1928)
Earliest exact wording
Mount Carmel, Illinois newspaper, November 1999
Idea traced to
Tom Phillips’ verse in The Rotarian, January 1917

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.

Widely captioned as Winnie-the-Pooh or A. A. Milne — but absent from every Pooh book. The closest real Milne passage, at the end of The House at Pooh Corner, has Christopher Robin and Pooh imagine being “a hundred” and “ninety-nine” — one year apart, with no mention of never living without the other.

Quote Investigator: the full origin trace

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator concludes “currently there is no substantive evidence that A. A. Milne employed this quotation,” dating the earliest exact phrasing to a Mount Carmel, Illinois paper in November 1999.
  • The same investigation credits the underlying idea to Tom Phillips, whose verse ran in The Rotarian, January 1917: “May you all live forever / May I live forever less a day…”
  • A rare-books survey of “authentic Winnie-the-Pooh quotes” flags this as “the most widely shared” Pooh line that “was not written by Milne.”

The exact modern wording has no identified author — it is first documented in a 1999 newspaper with no byline — so no copyright status can be responsibly asserted for it. (Tom Phillips’ 1917 Rotarian verse, a different text, would itself be public domain, but it is not this quotation.)

Fact-check

How Pooh got the credit

This is a textbook feel-good misattribution: a tender, quotable line pinned to a beloved gentle author who never wrote it.

A. A. Milne / Winnie-the-Pooh not in the books

The line appears in neither Winnie-the-Pooh nor The House at Pooh Corner. Quote Investigator found “no substantive evidence that A. A. Milne employed this quotation.”

The end of The House at Pooh Corner (1928) the confusion

Milne’s actual scene has the pair picture being “a hundred” and “ninety-nine” — one year apart, with no line about never having to live without each other, per QI’s comparison.

Tom Phillips (1917) the idea’s source

QI credits the underlying sentiment to Phillips’ verse in The Rotarian, January 1917: “May you all live forever / May I live forever less a day…” — a wholly different wording.

The exact ‘hundred minus one day’ phrasing is traced by Quote Investigator only to a Mount Carmel, Illinois newspaper in November 1999 — more than forty years after Milne’s death, and with no author’s name attached.

Context

Why it sticks to Pooh

The line thrives because it feels exactly like something Pooh would say, and because Milne really did write a wistful farewell scene about a boy and a bear growing old. That genuine kernel — “a hundred” and “ninety-nine” at the close of The House at Pooh Corner — gives the fabrication just enough truth to feel remembered rather than invented.

The 1997 direct-to-video film Pooh’s Grand Adventure echoes that same ‘hundred / ninety-nine’ exchange, which is often mistaken online for the source of the ‘minus one day’ wording. But the precise quotation everyone shares is not spoken there either; the earliest documented instance of it remains the 1999 newspaper caption.

It feels like Pooh — which is exactly why nobody checks the book.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Love Friendship Mortality

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: “May You All Live Forever…”quoteinvestigator.com

The authoritative origin trace: no evidence for Milne; idea credited to Tom Phillips (1917); exact wording dated to 1999.
17 Authentic Winnie-the-Pooh Quotesblog.bookstellyouwhy.com

Rare-book dealer’s list separating genuine Milne lines from fakes; names this quote as the most-shared line Milne did not write.
A. A. Milneen.wikiquote.org

Sourced collection of Milne’s genuine quotations for comparison — this line does not appear among them.
The House at Pooh Corner (1928)archive.org

Milne’s actual book whose closing ‘hundred / ninety-nine’ exchange is the real passage this fabrication is confused with.
The Rotarian, January 1917books.google.com

Archive of the magazine issue where Tom Phillips’ kindred ‘live forever less a day’ verse appeared.

Falsely credited

The name on the caption

A. A. Milne

1882–1956 · English playwright, novelist & creator of Winnie-the-Pooh

Alan Alexander Milne gave the world Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928), whose gentle prose has made him a magnet for feel-good lines he never wrote. His genuine closing scene — Christopher Robin and Pooh imagining themselves at “a hundred” and “ninety-nine” — is almost certainly the seed later reshaped, by other hands, into this ‘hundred minus one day’ internet quotation.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Origin trace

Garson O’Toole (Quote Investigator), “May You All Live Forever. May I Live Forever Less A Day,” January 27, 2020, citing The Rotarian (January 1917) and a Mount Carmel, Illinois newspaper (November 1999).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/if-you-live-to-be-a-hundred-i-want-to-live-to-be-a-hundred

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