Quotes from Tove Jansson

How nice it feels to be good," she thought quietly.

Du skjønner, det er så mye som ikke for plass om sommeren og høsten og våren", sa hun. "Alle som er litt sjenerte og litt rare. Forskjellige slags nattdyr og folk som ikke passer inn noen steder, og som ingen tror på. De holder seg unna hele året. Og så, når det er helt stille og hvitt og nettene blir lange og alle har gått i hi - da kommer de fram.

Fly! ropade muminmamman. Polisen är här! Hon visste inte vad hennes mumintroll hade gjort men var alldeles säker på att hon gillade det.

Luultavasti myrskyjä onkin vain siksi, että niiden jälkeen saataisiin auringonnousu.

Tuo kalastaja on höperö, hänellä on meriheinää päässä.

All the other stars keep to their courses, and go along just like trains on their rails, but comets can go absolutely anywhere; they pop up here and there wherever you least expect them." "Like me," said Snufkin, laughing. "They must be sky-tramps!" Moomintroll looked disapprovingly at him. "It's nothing to laugh at," he said. "It would be a terrible thing if a comet hit the earth.

And here I sit with my stamps in a complete muddle, and nobody has bothered to tell me what it's all about." "Listen now, Hemul," said Snufkin slowly and clearly. "It's about a comet that is going to collide with the earth tomorrow." "Collide?" said the Hemulen. "Has that anything to do with stamp-collecting?

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...

I am the Muskrat," said the wretched creature faintly. "A philosopher, you know. I should just like to point out that your bridge-building activities have completely ruined my house in the river bank, and although ultimately it doesn't matter what happens, I must say even a philosopher does not care for being soaked to the skin.

How easy it is to love.

It's a pity that exciting things always stop happening when you're not afraid of them anymore and would like to have a little fun.

I remember the dog at home, when I was a girl; the one that killed chickens. They tied a dead hen around his neck and he carried it around with him all day until he just lay there unmoving with his eyes shut in a morass of shame. It was cruel. There's nothing so hideously easy as giving someone a bad conscience.

Oh!" said Moominmamma with a start, "I believe those were mice disappearing into the cellar. Sniff, run down with a little milk for them." Then she caught sight of the suitcase which stood by the steps. "Luggage too," thought Moominmamma. "Dear me -- then they've come to stay." And she went off to look for Moominpappa to ask him to put up two more beds -- very, very small ones.

Hennes egen storm var alltid den hemskaste.

Then -- they saw the Groke. Everybody saw her. She sat motionless on the sandy path at the bottom of the steps and stared at them with round, expressionless eyes. She was not particularly big and didn't look dangerous either, but your let that she was terribly evil and would wait for ever. And that was awful. Nobody plucked up enough courage to attack. She sat there for a while, and then slid away into the darkness. But where she had been sitting the ground was frozen!

Grandmother had had to be frugal all her life, and so she had a weakness for extravagance. She watched the basin and the barrels and every crevice in the granite fill with water and overflow. She looked at the mattresses out being aired and the dishes that were washing themselves. She sighed contentedly, and, absorbed in thought, she filled a coffee cup with precious drinking water and poured it over a daisy.

It was definitely finished, and for one moment the sadness of completion overtook the Hemulen.

Englemos," sa sniff nonchalant. "Bare barnslig tøv." I hvert fall for alle som har sett i en stjernekikkert.

It's funny about love, the more you love someone, the less he likes you back. And so, what do you do? You go on loving, you love harder and harder.

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." "It's not hard at all!" Sophia shouted. "And what are you going to do about the Devil, then? He lives in Hell!" For a moment Grandmother considered saying that there was no Devil either, but she didn't want to be mean.

Irrational terror is so hard to deal with.

I can work anywhere," said the Muskrat. "It's all a matter of thinking. I sit and think about how unnecessary everything is." "Really?" said Moominpappa, much impressed. "Perhaps I might offer you a glass of wine? Against the cold?" "Wine, I am bound to say, is unnecessary," replied the Muskrat, "but a small drop nevertheless would not be unwelcome.

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

I'm not a great one for beds, said the muskrat. They are unnecessary furniture, really. It was the only hole I lived in, but I was happy there. Of course, it's all the same to a philosopher whether he is happy or not, but it was a good hole . . .