Tove Jansson Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• ...now and then a giggling trail of mermaids appeared in our wake. We fed them oatmeal.

  Tove Jansson

  Inspirational, Funny, Oatmeal

  13 Copy quote

• An island can be dreadful for someone from outside. Everything is complete, and everyone has his obstinate, sure and self-sufficient place. Within their shores, everything functions according to rituals that are as hard as rock from repetition, and at the same time they amble through their days as whimsically and casually as if the world ended at the horizon.

  Tove Jansson

  Islands, Rocks, Self

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Summer, Stars, Fall

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Grandmother, Long, Lost

  5 Copy quote

• ... '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]

  Tove Jansson

  Long, Feelings, Gliding

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  People, Aversion, Enthusiasm

  Tove Jansson (2012). “Fair Play”, p.4, New York Review of Books

  7 Copy quote

• Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.

  Tove Jansson

  Bigs

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominpappa at Sea”, p.37, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Beautiful, Tree, Wreaths

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Book, Reading, Doors

  Tove Jansson (2012). “The True Deceiver”, p.57, New York Review of Books

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Voice, Tables, Said

  4 Copy quote

• One ought to have the right to have a secret and to spring it as a surprise. But if you live inside a family you have neither.

  Tove Jansson

  Family, Spring, Secret

  4 Copy quote

• One can't be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it.

  Tove Jansson

  Jam, Pancakes, Dangerous

  4 Copy quote

• I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness

  Tove Jansson

  Calm, Calm Down, Bits

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominsummer Madness”, p.51, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Running, Dog, Grandmother

  32 Copy quote

• It looks rather ordinary," said the Snork. "Unless you consider that a top hat is always somewhat extraordinary, of course.

  Tove Jansson

  Ordinary, Looks, Top Hats

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Finn Family Moomintroll”, p.31, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world.

  Tove Jansson

  Night, Journey, World

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominpappa at Sea”, p.22, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Now everything was changed. She walked about with cautious, anxious steps, staring constantly at the ground, on the lookout for things that crept and crawled. Bushes were dangerous, and so were sea grass and rain water. There were little animals everywhere. They could turn up between the covers of a book, flattened and dead, for the fact is that creeping animals, tattered animals, and dead animals are with us all our lives, from beginning to end. Grandmother tried to discuss this with her, to no avail. Irrational terror is so hard to deal with.

  Tove Jansson

  Fear, Rain, Book

  4 Copy quote

• There are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring. Everything that’s a little shy and a little rum. Some kinds of night animals and people that don’t fit in with others and that nobody really believes in. They keep out of the way all the year. And then when everything’s quiet and white and the nights are long and most people are asleep—then they appear.

  Tove Jansson

  Summer, Spring, Believe

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominland Midwinter”, p.40, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Running, Grandmother, Weather

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  People, Way, Strange

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominpappa at Sea”, p.22, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• ...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.

  Tove Jansson

  Interesting, Feelings, Asking

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  White, Gathering, Peculiar

  20 Copy quote

• The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know.

  Tove Jansson

  Knows

  4 Copy quote

• But he thought all the strange words were beautiful, and he had never had a book of his own before.

  Tove Jansson

  Beautiful, Book, Strange

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominvalley in November”, p.53, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

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