Tove Jansson Quotes
-
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.
→ -
One can't be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it.
→ -
Sophia and Grandmother sat down by the shore to discuss the matter further. It was a pretty day, and the sea was running a long, windless swell. It was on days just like this--dog days--that boats went sailing off all by themselves. Large, alien objects made their way in from sea, certain things sank and others rose, milk soured, and dragonflies danced in desperation. Lizards were not afraid. When the moon came up, red spiders mated on uninhabited skerries, where the rock became an unbroken carpet of tiny, ecstatic spiders.
→ -
I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know. Twilight is the border between day and night, and the shore is the border between sea and land. The border is longing: when both have fallen in love but still haven't said anything. The border is to be on the way. It is the way that is the most important thing.
→ -
Storms probably exist only because after them we can have a sunrise.
→ -
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.
→ -
He didn't remember, he didn't worry, he just was.
→ -
All things are so very uncertain, and that's exactly what makes me feel reassured.
→ -
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.
→ -
I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness
→ -
Dogs are mute and obedient, but they have watched us and know us and can smell how pitiful we are.
→ -
My bag was as light as my happy-go-lucky heart.
→ -
It looks rather ordinary," said the Snork. "Unless you consider that a top hat is always somewhat extraordinary, of course.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
I don't want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.
→ -
Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
''Just think, never to be glad or disappointed. Never to like anyone and get cross at him and forgive him. Never to sleep or feel cold, never to make a mistake and have a stomach-ache and be cured from it, never to have a birthday party, drink beer, and have a bad conscience... How terrible.
→ -
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.
→ -
... '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]
→ -
I mean, anyone can let Danger out but the really clever thing is finding somewhere for it to go afterwards.
→ -
Look at The Adventure. A boat by night is a wonderful sight. This is the way to start a new life, with a hurricane lamp shining at the top of the mast, and the coastline disappearing behind one as the whole world lies sleeping. Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
→ -
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.
→ -
There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are.
→ -
When Mats came in the evenings, they would drink tea in the kitchen while reading their books and talking about them. If Katri came in, they were quiet and waited for her to leave. The back door would close, and Katri would have gone. “Does your sister read our books?” Anna wanted to know. “No. She reads literature.
→
Related Authors
-
Soren Kierkegaard Philosopher -
Charles Perrault Author -
Knut Hamsun Author -
Hjalmar Söderberg Novelist -
August Strindberg Playwright -
Hans Christian Andersen Author -
A. A. Milne Author -
Alvar Aalto Architect -
Charles Dickens Writer -
Erin Morgenstern Writer -
Astrid Lindgren Writer -
Antoine de Saint-Exupery Writer -
Aesop Author -
Oscar Wilde Writer -
Selma Lagerlöf Author -
Nelly Sachs Poet -
Lewis Carroll Writer -
Roald Dahl Novelist -
Cornelia Funke Author -
Sigrid Undset Novelist