Tove Jansson Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Someone who eats pancakes and jam can't be so awfully dangerous. You can talk to him.

  Tove Jansson

  Jam, Pancakes, Dangerous

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  World, Hundred, Made

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominpappa at Sea”, p.4, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Why are you in such a rush?" Sophia asked, and her grandmother answered that it was a good idea to do things before you forgot that they had to be done.

  Tove Jansson

  Grandmother, Ideas, Done

  5 Copy quote

• The thing about God, she thought, is that He usually does help, but not until you've made an effort on your own.

  Tove Jansson

  Effort, Doe, Helping

  "Summer Book". Book by Tove Jansson, www.theguardian.com. 1972.

  17 Copy quote

• ‎''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.

  Tove Jansson

  Mistake, Party, Sleep

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Tales from Moominvalley”, p.143, Macmillan

  16 Copy quote

• 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?

  Tove Jansson

  Mean, Thinking, People

  21 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Hero, Writing, Adventure

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Moominland Midwinter”, p.122, Macmillan

  28 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Circles, Darkness, Lamps

  7 Copy quote

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

  Tove Jansson

  Worry, Remember

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Intelligent, Thinking, People

  23 Copy quote

• Dogs are mute and obedient, but they have watched us and know us and can smell how pitiful we are.

  Tove Jansson

  Dog, Smell, Mute

  Tove Jansson (2012). “The True Deceiver”, p.8, New York Review of Books

  6 Copy quote

• Most of the people are homesick anyway, and a little lonely, and they hide themselves in their hair and are turned into flowers.

  Tove Jansson

  Lonely, Flower, Hair

  Tove Jansson (2006). “A Winter Book: Selected Stories”, Sort of Books

  11 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

  8 Copy quote

• I don't want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.

  Tove Jansson

  Want

  10 Copy quote

• I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know.

  Tove Jansson

  Beautiful, Summer, Autumn

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Hands, Going Away, Looks

  Tove Jansson (2014). “Comet in Moominland: Can Moomintroll save his beloved valley?”, p.51, Macmillan

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Giving, Feelings, Gold

  6 Copy quote

• It's funny about love', Sophia said. 'The more you love someone, the less he likes you back.' 'That's very true,' Grandmother observed. 'And so what do you do?' 'You go on loving,' said Sophia threateningly. 'You love harder and harder.

  Tove Jansson

  Grandmother, Goes On, Likes

  16 Copy quote

• Before we left, Grandmother talked a lot about the arctic night we would fly through. 'Isn't it a mystical word, "arctic"? Pure and quite hard. And meridians. Isn't that pretty? We're going to fly along them, faster than the light can follow us... Time won't be able to catch us.

  Tove Jansson

  Grandmother, Night, Light

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Block, Spring, Rocks

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Tove Jansson

  Lying, Adventure, Sleep

  5 Copy quote

• Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else's snakes can ever be as awful.

  Tove Jansson

  Snakes, Awful, Imagine

  Tove Jansson (2006). “A Winter Book: Selected Stories”, Sort of Books

  7 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

  5 Copy quote

• Smell is important. It reminds a person of all the things he's been through; it is a sheath of memories and security.

  Tove Jansson

  Memories, Smell, Important

  10 Copy quote

• I'm not sure I would have ever started to draw, let alone write, if my childhood hadn't been so happy. It was a mixture of comfort and adventure. An excellent mixture!

  Tove Jansson

  Writing, Adventure, Childhood

  4 Copy quote

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