Top 100 Tove Jansson Quotes
#1. My bag was as light as my happy-go-lucky heart.
Tove Jansson
#2. It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent - lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It's as simple as that.
Tove Jansson
#3. Malander had an idea and was trying to work it out, but it would take him time. Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn't even realise that they forgotten.
Tove Jansson
#4. A very long time ago, Grandmother had wanted to tell about all the things they did, but no one had bothered to ask. And now she had lost the urge.
Tove Jansson
#5. I'm not sure I would have ever started to draw, let alone write, if my childhood hadn't been so happy. It was a mixture of comfort and adventure. An excellent mixture!
Tove Jansson
#6. But that's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now, I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase.
Tove Jansson
#7. Oh, Anna Aemelin, the only thing you care about is your own conscience. That's what you cherish. You're a charming little liar.
Tove Jansson
#8. I want your first trip to be with me. I want to show you cities and landscapes and teach you how to look at things in new ways and how to get along in places you don't already know inside out. I want to put some life in you ...
Tove Jansson
#9. I wonder if the nursery and the chamber of horrors are as far apart as people think?
Tove Jansson
#10. Well, things can't get much worse
that's one consolation, the Muskrat groaned. He had hidden himself in a forest of bracken in the bathroom, and had wrapped his head in a handkerchief so that nothing should grow into his ears.
Tove Jansson
#11. All men are chums who will never leave each other in the lurch. A chum doesn't forgive, he just forgets - women forgive everything but never forget. Being forgiven is very unpleasant.
Tove Jansson
#12. You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
Tove Jansson
#13. The Hemulen slid down onto the grass completely exhausted.
"Oh!" he moaned. "There has never been anything but trouble and danger since I came into the Moomin family.
Tove Jansson
#14. She started thinking about all the euphemisms for death, all the anxious taboos that had always fascinated her. It was too bad you could never have an intelligent discussion on the subject. People were either too young or too old, or else they didn't have time.
Tove Jansson
#15. Sophia," she said, "this is really not something to argue about. You can see for yourself that life is hard enough without being punished for it afterwards. We get comfort when we die, that's the whole idea
Tove Jansson
#16. The room had lost its morning light, the glow of expectation and potential. The daylight was now gray, and the new day was already used, a little soiled by mistaken thoughts and makeshift undertakings.
Tove Jansson
#17. All things are so very uncertain, and that's exactly what makes me feel reassured.
Tove Jansson
#18. My dear child," said Grandmother impatiently, "every human being has to make his own mistakes." She was very tired, and wanted to get home.
Tove Jansson
#19. It can be sad having a friend you've admired too much and seen too rarely and told too many things that you should have kept to yourself.
Tove Jansson
#20. Gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you're looking for. If you're picking raspberries, you see only what's red, and if you're looking for bones you see only the white. No matter where you go, the only thing you see is bones.
Tove Jansson
#21. He didn't remember, he didn't worry, he just was.
Tove Jansson
#22. It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive. It has come to a standstill; nothing withers, and fall is not ready to begin. There are no stars yet, just darkness.
Tove Jansson
#23. No well-bred person goes ashore on someone else's island when there's no one home. But if they put up a sign, then you do it anyway, because it's a slap in the face
Tove Jansson
#24. Pearls' burst out the Snork Maiden excitedly. 'Could ankle rings be made out of pearls?'
'I should think they could,' said Moomintoll. 'Ankle-rings, and nose-rings and ear-rings and engagement rings ...
Tove Jansson
#25. Most of the people are homesick anyway, and a little lonely, and they hide themselves in their hair and are turned into flowers.
Tove Jansson
#26. Alexander was in the grip of a passion for perfection. He was not aware of how closely, how perilously, perfectionism and fanaticism are related.
Tove Jansson
#27. It's finished. There isn't a stamp, or an error that I haven't collected. Not one. What shall I do now?"
"I think I'm beginning to understand," said Moomintroll slowly. "You aren't a collector anymore, you're only an owner, and that isn't nearly so much fun.
Tove Jansson
#28. If words lie face down there's a chance they might change during the night; you may suddenly come to see them with a new eye, perhaps with a rapid flash of insight. It is conceivable.
Tove Jansson
#29. Why do you smile all the time?" he said. "Because I am looking at you," she said
Tove Jansson
#30. There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are.
Tove Jansson
#31. Listen," said the Hemulen. "I was born bald on top and really I get along very well.
Tove Jansson
#32. He read the classics, the French and the German among others, but primarily the Russian, which enchanted him with their heavy patience.
Tove Jansson
#33. What is right and what is wrong is a very sensitive matter.
Tove Jansson
#34. She counted out five sweets and put them on a saucer. Then she went and put them on the ledge in the cliff to cheer him up.
Tove Jansson
#35. There are those who stay at home and those who go away, and it has always been so. Everyone can choose for himself, but he must choose while there is still time and never change his mind.
Tove Jansson
#36. It's nice to have beautiful things that really belong to you.
Tove Jansson
#37. It'd be awful if the world exploded, it's so wonderfully splendid
Tove Jansson
#38. Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn't even realize that they had forgotten
Tove Jansson
#40. Meanwhile the Hemulen was arranging firework set pieces in suitable places. They had Bengal Lights, Blue-Star Rain, Silver Fountains, and Rockets that exploded with stars.
Tove Jansson
#41. It was simply that she was only fully alive when she devoted herself to her singular ability to draw, and when she drew she was naturally always alone.
Tove Jansson
#42. It was the winter of war, in 1939. It felt completely pointless to try to create pictures ... I suddenly felt an urge to write down something that was to begin with 'Once upon a time.'
Tove Jansson
#43. Storms probably exist only because after them we can have a sunrise.
Tove Jansson
#44. The spirit of adventure sped through his soul on mighty wings.
Tove Jansson
#45. Who's he going to outwit?" Sophia asked.
"Relatives." Grandmother said. "Nasty relatives. They tell him what to do without asking him what he wants, and so there's nothing at all he really does want.
Tove Jansson
#46. We sat talking on a rock. The air was filled with the tang of sea-weed and of something else that could only have been the ocean smell. I felt so happy that I wasn't even afraid it wouldn't last.
Tove Jansson
#47. There one is safe. In a museum or in a lap or in a tree. Perhaps under the bedclothes. But the best thing of all is to sit high up in a tree, that is if one isn't still inside one's Mummy's tummy.
Tove Jansson
#48. It's only the sea,' said Moomintroll. 'Every wave that dies on the beach sings a little song to a shell. But you mustn't go inside because it's a labyrinth and you may never come out again.
Tove Jansson
#49. If you're not afraid, how can you be really brave?
Tove Jansson
#50. One ought to have the right to have a secret and to spring it as a surprise. But if you live inside a family you have neither.
Tove Jansson
#51. Isn't it fun when one's friends get exactly what suits them?
Tove Jansson
#52. They were always doing something. Quietly, without interruption, and with great concentration, they carried on with the hundred-and-one small things that made up their world.
Tove Jansson
#54. Irrational terror is so hard to deal with.
Tove Jansson
#55. Those damn Moomins. I don't want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.
Tove Jansson
#56. For a while she considered being ill, but she changed her mind ...
Tove Jansson
#57. The Hemulen, moaning piteously, thrust his nose into the sand. "This has gone too far!" he said. "Why can't a poor innocent botanist live his life in peace and quiet?"
"Life is not peaceful," said Snufkin, contentedly.
Tove Jansson
#58. Christmas always rustled. It rustled every time, mysteriously, with silver and gold paper, tissue paper and a rich abundance of shiny paper, decorating and hiding everything and giving a feeling of reckless extravagance.
Tove Jansson
#59. Making a whole is very important. Most people paint things and forget the whole.
Tove Jansson
#60. Dogs are mute and obedient, but they have watched us and know us and can smell how pitiful we are.
Tove Jansson
#61. And all you can do is just read," she said. She raised her voice an screamed, "You just read and read and read!" Then she threw herself down on the table and wept.
Tove Jansson
#62. There was so much to talk about that nothing was said. It was warm sitting there on the steps. Everything seemed to be so right.
Tove Jansson
#63. There ought to be a big fuss when people move up in the world.
Tove Jansson
#64. When the kite was finished, it refused to fly and kept slamming into the ground as if it wanted to destroy itself, and finally it threw itself in the march. Sophia put it outside Grandmother's door and went away.
Tove Jansson
#65. You can close your mind to things if something is important enough. It works very well. You make yourself very small, shut your eyes tight and say a big word over and over again until you're save.
Tove Jansson
#66. Is it true you were born i the eighteen-hundreds?" Sophia yelled through the window.
"What of it?" Grandmother answered, very distinctly.
"What do you know about the eighteen-hundreds?"
"Nothing, and i'm not interested, either," Sophia shouted and ran away.
Tove Jansson
#67. One has to discover everything for oneself. And get over it all alone.
Tove Jansson
#69. She was tired and in no mood for anyone's similes but her own.
Tove Jansson
#71. Every year, the bright Scandinavian summer nights fade without anyone's noticing. One evening in August you have an errand outdoors, and all of a sudden it's pitch-black. It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive.
Tove Jansson
#72. Do you know the difference between the first love and the last? It's this: you always think the first love is the last and the last the first...
Tove Jansson
#73. Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It's very easy to enjoy yourself.
Tove Jansson
#74. It was a particularly good evening to begin a book.
Tove Jansson
#75. A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world, because that's where people are shown what they could be if they wanted, and what they'd like to be if they dared to and what they really are
Tove Jansson
#76. We'll always keep our bangles in brown pond water in the future. They're so much more beautiful that way
Tove Jansson
#77. Wise as she was, she realized that people can postpone their rebellious phases until they're eighty-five years old, and she decided to keep an eye on herself.
Tove Jansson
#78. One can't be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it.
Tove Jansson
#79. He was the owner of the moonlight on the ground, he fell in love with the most beautiful of the trees, he made wreaths of leaves and strung them around his neck.
Tove Jansson
#80. The thing about God, she thought, is that He usually does help, but not until you've made an effort on your own.
Tove Jansson
#81. A person can also find solitude with others, though it is more difficult
Tove Jansson
#82. Nothing is as peaceful as when Christmas is over, when one has been forgiven for everything and can be normal again.
Tove Jansson
#83. A person can find anything if he takes the time, that is, if he can afford to look. And while he's looking, he's free, and he finds things he never expected.
Tove Jansson
#84. How nice it feels to be good, she thought quietly.
Tove Jansson
#85. Quite, quite,' she thought with a little sigh. 'It's always like this in their adventures. To save and be saved. I wish somebody would write a story sometime about the people who warm up the heroes afterward.
Tove Jansson
#86. The voice of the waves was now mixed with strange sounds; laughter, running feet and the clanging of great bells far out to sea. Snufkin lay still and listened. dreaming and remembering his trip round world. Soon I must set out again, he thought. But not yet.
Tove Jansson
#87. Life is an isle of sorrow, you live today and die tomorrow!
Tove Jansson
#88. But I was held down to earth by being constantly reminded that the world expects much of the gifted and that having talent is never an excuse for not using it.
Tove Jansson
#89. It's strange," Moominmamma thought. "Strange that people can be sad, and even angry because life is too easy. But that's the way it is, I suppose. The only thing to do is to start life afresh.
Tove Jansson
#90. Even potted plants got to be a responsibility, like everything else you took care of that couldn't make decisions for itself.
Tove Jansson
#91. Maybe my passion is nothing special, but at least it's mine.
Tove Jansson
#92. Mummy weighed sweets and nuts so that everyone would get exactly the same amount. During the year, everything is measured roughly, but at Christmas, it has to be absolutely fair. That's why it's such a strenuous time.
Tove Jansson
#93. It's funny about me,' Sophia said. 'I always feel like such a nice girl whenever there's a storm.'
"'You do?' Grandmother said. 'Well, maybe ...' Nice, she thought. No. I'm certainly not nice. The best you could say of me is that I'm interested. [pp. 150-151]
Tove Jansson
#94. Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world.
Tove Jansson
#95. Robes, dresses, frocks. They hung in endless rows, in hundreds, one beside the other all around the room - gleaming brocade, fluffy clouds of tulle and swansdown, flowery silk, night-black velvet with glittering spangles everywhere like small, many-coloured blinker beacons.
Tove Jansson
#96. It looks rather ordinary," said the Snork. "Unless you consider that a top hat is always somewhat extraordinary, of course.
Tove Jansson
#97. Grandmother walked up over the bare granite and thought about birds in general. It seemed to her no other creature had the same dramatic capacity to underline and perfect events
the shifts in the seasons and the weather, the changes that run through people themselves. p.33
Tove Jansson
#98. It takes a long time sometimes," she said, "It can take a terrible long time before things sort themselves out.
Tove Jansson
#99. Sometimes it's better to look at things than own them ... owning means anxiety and lots of bags to carry around.
Tove Jansson
#100. I mean, anyone can let Danger out but the really clever thing is finding somewhere for it to go afterwards.
Tove Jansson
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