Quotes from Tove Jansson

The spirit of adventure sped through his soul on mighty wings.

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.

What are you thinking of discovering?" Moomintroll cleared his throat and felt very proud. "Oh, everything," he said. "Stars, for example!" Snufkin was deeply impressed. "Stars!" he exclaimed. "Then I must come with you. Stars are my favorite things. I always lie and look at them before I go to sleep, and wonder who is on them and how one could get there. The sky looks so friendly with all those little eyes twinkling in it.

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.

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.

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

He didn't remember, he didn't worry, he just was.

There are empty spaces that must be respected – those often long periods when a person can't see the pictures or find the words and needs to be left alone.

For a while she considered being ill, but she changed her mind...

The garnets,' Sniff moaned. 'I didn't get a single one.' Snufkin sat down beside him and said kindly: 'I know. 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.

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.

you can't depend on people who just let things happen

by and by a change came: I started to muse about the shape of my nose. I put my trivial surroundings aside and mused more and more about myself, and I found this to be a bewitching occupation. I stopped asking and longed instead to speak of my thoughts and feelings. Alas, there was no one besides myself who found me interesting.

Sellaista henkilöä kohtaan tunnetaan aina kunnioitusta, joka osaa pitää suunsa kiinni. Luullaan että sellainen tietää paljon ja elää hirveän jännittävästi.

Ajatella, jos ei koskaan voisi tulla iloiseksi tai pettyä, mietti isä veneen kiitäessä läpi myrskyn. Ei koskaan voisi pitää kenestäkään, eikä suuttua eikä antaa anteeksi. Ei koskaan voisi nukkua eikä palella, ei koskaan erehtyä, ei tuntea vatsakipua eikä toipua siitä, ei viettää syntymäpäivää, ei juoda olutta eikä tuntea pahaa omaatuntoa...

Om man är arg så är man arg, konstaterade lilla My och skalade sin potatis med tänderna. Man ska vara arg ibland, vartenda knytt har rätt att vara ilsket.

It's a funny thing about bogs. You can fill them with rocks and sand and old logs and make a little fenced-in yard on top with a woodpile and chopping block - but bogs go right on behaving like bogs. Early in the spring they breathe ice and make their own mist, in remembrance of the time when they had black water and their own sedge blossoming untouched.

Anyway, solitary people interest me. There are so many different ways of being solitary.' 'I know just what you mean,' said X. 'I know exactly what you're going to say. Different kinds of solitude. Enforced solitude and voluntary solitude.' 'Quite,' said Viktoria. 'There's no need to go into it further. But when people understand one another without speaking, it can often leave them with very little to talk about, don't you think?

All men have parties and are pals who never let each other down. A pal can say terrible things which are forgotten the next day. A pal never forgives, he just forgets, and a woman forgives but never forgets. That's how it is. That's why women aren't allowed to have parties. Being forgiven is very unpleasant.

Where's your home then?" asked the Snork Maiden. "Nowhere," said Snufkin a little sadly, "or everywhere. It depends how you look at it.

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

Some people just shouldn't be disturbed in their inclinations, whether large or small. A reminder can instantly turn enthusiasm into aversion and spoil everything.

Why do you smile all the time?" he said. "Because I am looking at you," she said

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?