Top 100 Jansson's Quotes
#1. Thomas Teal, a luminous translator of Jansson's twin talent for surface and depth, simplicity and reverberation in language, and someone who knows exactly how to convey her gift for sensing the meaning embedded in the most mundane act or turn of phrase.
Ali Smith
#2. You saved us in the nick of time."
"Have I saved you?" asked the Hemulen in surprise. "I didn't mean to. I was looking for the caterpillars that were making such a noise down there." (Hemulens are generally a bit slow in grasping an idea, but they are very pleasant if you don't annoy them.)
Tove Jansson
#3. 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
#4. 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
#5. That there can still be as-yet untranslated fiction by [Tove] Jansson is simultaneously an aberration and a delight, like finding buried treasure.
Ali Smith
#6. Oh, dear me!" he lamented. "The raft has floated off and I suppose it's gone down that awful hole by now."
"Well, never mind. We're not on it," said Snufkin gaily. "What's a kettle here or there when you're out looking for a comet!
Tove Jansson
#7. Here is the most valuable thing in the whole of Moomin Valley, Groke! Do you know what has grown out of this hat? Raspberry juice and fruit trees, and the most beautiful little self-propelling clouds: the only Hobgoblin's Hat in the world!
Tove Jansson
#8. 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
#9. You can't always be friendly. It's impossible, there isn't the time.
Tove Jansson
#10. Before we left, Grandmother talked a lot about the arctic night we would fly through. 'Isn't it a mystical word, "arctic"? Pure and quite hard. And meridians. Isn't that pretty? We're going to fly along them, faster than the light can follow us ... Time won't be able to catch us.
Tove Jansson
#11. The promises made by a guilty conscience acknowledge and settle no debts...
Tove Jansson
#12. The spirit of adventure sped through his soul on mighty wings.
Tove Jansson
#13. Storms probably exist only because after them we can have a sunrise.
Tove Jansson
#14. 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
#15. 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
#16. 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
#18. 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
#19. It'd be awful if the world exploded, it's so wonderfully splendid
Tove Jansson
#20. It's nice to have beautiful things that really belong to you.
Tove Jansson
#21. 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
#22. Because we're going to stay here a little while and calm down until I've learned your names. Light my pipe, someone!
Tove Jansson
#23. 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
#24. What is right and what is wrong is a very sensitive matter.
Tove Jansson
#25. He read the classics, the French and the German among others, but primarily the Russian, which enchanted him with their heavy patience.
Tove Jansson
#26. Listen," said the Hemulen. "I was born bald on top and really I get along very well.
Tove Jansson
#27. 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
#28. Sometimes it's better to look at things than own them ... owning means anxiety and lots of bags to carry around.
Tove Jansson
#29. It's funny about love', Sophia said. 'The more you love someone, the less he likes you back.'
'That's very true,' Grandmother observed. 'And so what do you do?'
'You go on loving,' said Sophia threateningly. 'You love harder and harder.
Tove Jansson
#30. Moominpappa: "Tell us all that's happening out in the world!"
Snufkin: "Fuss and misery."
- from "Moomin and Family Life" comic strip
Tove Jansson
#31. 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
#32. 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
#33. Maybe my passion is nothing special, but at least it's mine.
Tove Jansson
#34. 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
#35. 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
#36. Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.
Tove Jansson
#37. 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
#38. Smell is important. It reminds a person of all the things he's been through; it is a sheath of memories and security.
Tove Jansson
#39. 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
#40. No one can depict desolation who hasn't inhabited desolation and observed it very closely. Things condemned have a terrible beauty.
Tove Jansson
#41. 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
#42. At the same time they both caught sight of a third curly flourish on a tree-trunk right in front of them, but it was terribly high up, at least three feet above the ground.
"That's it, I'm sure," said Sniff, stretching himself. "I must be taller than I thought!
Tove Jansson
#43. 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
#44. She was tired and in no mood for anyone's similes but her own.
Tove Jansson
#45. The garnets would have gone in the rucksack," said Sniff miserably. "You don't need hands for that. It's not the same thing at all just looking at them. I want to touch them and know they're mine.
Tove Jansson
#46. 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
#47. On the morning, Daddy and I get up at six o'clock because Christmas trees must be bought in the dark. We walk to the other end of town, as the big harbour is just the right setting for buying a Christmas tree. We spend hours choosing, looking at every branch suspiciously. It's always cold.
Tove Jansson
#48. 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
#49. Isn't it fun when one's friends get exactly what suits them?
Tove Jansson
#50. 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
#51. I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream!
Tove Jansson
#52. One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago
I met a little girl with a book under her arm.
I asked her why she was out so early and
she answered that there were too many books and
far too little time. And there she was absolutely right.
Tove Jansson
#53. 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
#54. 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
#55. You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
Tove Jansson
#56. Only farmers and summer guests walk on the moss. What they don't know - and it cannot be repeated too often - is that moss is terribly frail. Step on it once and it rises the next time it rains. The second time, it doesn't rise back up. And the third time you step on moss, it dies.
Tove Jansson
#57. 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
#58. 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
#59. I wonder if the nursery and the chamber of horrors are as far apart as people think?
Tove Jansson
#60. 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
#61. 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
#62. You can't depend on people who just let things happen
Tove Jansson
#63. 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
#64. The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know.
Tove Jansson
#65. I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness
Tove Jansson
#66. 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
#67. 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
#68. 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
#69. Tell them it's a secret. Tell them they don't need to know.
Tove Jansson
#70. 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
#71. Of course, Moomintrolls don't wear clothes, except sometimes in bed.
Tove Jansson
#72. I'm afraid we shall waste an awful lot of time."
"Don't worry," answered Snufkin, "we shall have wonderful dreams, and when we wake up it'll be spring.
Tove Jansson
#73. Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else's snakes can ever be as awful.
Tove Jansson
#74. My bag was as light as my happy-go-lucky heart.
Tove Jansson
#75. It's risky to talk about one's most secret dreams a bit too early.
Tove Jansson
#76. When one's dead, one's dead ... This squirrel will become earth all in his time. And still later on, there'll grow new trees from him, with new squirrels skipping about in them. Do you think that's so very sad?
Tove Jansson
#77. 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
#78. There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are.
Tove Jansson
#79. Why do you smile all the time?" he said. "Because I am looking at you," she said
Tove Jansson
#80. 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
#81. But Moominmamma was quite unperturbed.
"Well, well!" she said, "it seems to me that our guests are having a very good time."
"I hope so," replied Moominpappa. "Pass me a banana, please dear.
Tove Jansson
#82. You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is.
Tove Jansson
#83. 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
#84. Are you too frightened to go any farther?" asked the silk-monkey, who found all this very easy, having four legs herself.
"I'm never afraid," answered Sniff. "But I think the view is better from here.
Tove Jansson
#85. Sniff looked at them and noticed that they were much smaller than he was, so he felt kinder and said, condescendingly. Hullo. Nice to see you.
Tove Jansson
#86. 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
#87. I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones; they're the most important.
Tove Jansson
#88. 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
#89. You're an idiot," Snufkin said. "Or still worse, you're a story spoiler.
Tove Jansson
#90. 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
#92. 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
#93. He did not confuse what he longed for with his gratitude for what he had. Extreme desires have their own sanctuary.
Tove Jansson
#94. He didn't remember, he didn't worry, he just was.
Tove Jansson
#95. 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
#96. 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
#97. 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
#98. All things are so very uncertain, and that's exactly what makes me feel reassured.
Tove Jansson
#99. 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
#100. 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
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