Quotes from Tove Jansson

The lamp sizzled as it burned. It made everything seem close and safe, a little family circle they all knew and trusted. Outside this circle lay everything that was strange and frightening, and the darkness seemed to reach higher and higher and further and further away, right to the end of the world.

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]

I mean, anyone can let Danger out but the really clever thing is finding somewhere for it to go afterwards.

Mutta voi, miten ihanaa on hiljaisena hetkenä juuri ennen auringon nousua mennä kotiin nukkumaan kun syömiset on syöty, juomiset juotu, puhumiset puhuttu ja tanssittu jalat väsyksiin.

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.

Well,' said Hodgkins, 'perhaps he really is interested in everything, only he doesn't overdo it. For ourselves there is always one single interest. You want to become. I want to do. My nephew wants to have. But the Joxter just lives.' 'Simply lives,' I said. 'Anybody can do that.' 'Mphm,' Hodgkins said.

I don't want friends who are kind without really liking me and I don't want anybody who is kind just so as not to be unpleasant.

Even potted plants got to be a responsibility, like everything else you took care of that couldn't make decisions for itself.

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.

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.

Moomintroll's mother and father always welcomed all their friends in the same quiet way, just adding another bed and putting another leaf in the dining-room table. And so Moominhouse was rather full -- a place where everyone did what they liked and seldom worried about tomorrow. Very often unexpected and disturbing things used to happen, but nobody ever had time to be bored, and that is always a good thing.

Once a year the Hattifatteners collect there before setting out again on their endless foraging expedition round the world. They come from all points of the compass, silent and serious with their small, white empty faces, and why they hold this yearly meeting it is difficult to say, as they can neither hear nor speak, and have no object in life but the distant goal of their journey's end. Perhaps they like to have a place where they feel at home and can rest a little and meet friends.

Kaikki on hyvin epävarmaa, ja juuri se tekee minut levolliseksi. - Tuu-tikki

I've been doing everything for an awfully long time, and I've seen and lived as hard as I could, and it's been unbelievable, I tell you, unbelievable. But now I have the feeling everything's gliding away from me, and I don't remember, and I don't care, and yet now is right when I need it!'. [pp. 84-85]

It'd be awful if the world exploded, it's so wonderfully splendid

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.

It takes a long time sometimes," she said, "It can take a terrible long time before things sort themselves out.

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.

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!

Nothing can be as peaceful and endless as a long winter darkness, going on and on, like living in a tunnel where the dark sometimes deepens into night and sometimes eases to twilight, you're screened from everything, protected, even more alone than usual.

For if you're not afraid how can you really be brave?

I know I do everything. I've been doing everything for an awfully long time, and I've seen and lived as hard as I could, and it's been unbelievable, I tell you, unbelievable. But now I have the feeling everything is gliding away from me, and I don't remember, and I don't care, and yet now is right when I need it.

Before she left, she said, "Just remember one thing: Going along with something doesn't mean you give in to it.[...]

It was the end of August — the time when owls hoot at night and flurries of bats swoop noiselessly over the garden. Moomin Wood was full of glow-worms, and the sea was disturbed. There was expectation and a certain sadness in the air, and the harvest moon came up huge and yellow. Moomintroll had always liked those last weeks of summer most, but he didn't really know why.