Top 150 Tove Jansson Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “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

52. “How nice it feels to be good,” she thought quietly.”

— Tove Jansson

53. “But I was held down to earth by being constantly reminded that the world expects much of the gifted and that having talent is never an excuse for not using it.”

— Tove Jansson

54. “Passion. As you can see, I’ve lived quite a long time, which is to say I’ve been working for quite a long time, which is the same thing. And you know what? In the whole silly business, the only thing that really matters is passion. It comes and it goes. At first it just comes to you free of charge, and you don’t understand, and you waste it. And then it becomes a thing to nurture.”

— Tove Jansson

55. “That’s strange, Grandmother thought. I can’t describe things any more. I can’t find the words, or maybe it’s just that I’m not trying hard enough. It was such a long time ago. No one here was even born. And unless I tell it because I want to, it’s as if it never happened; it gets closed off and then it’s lost.”

— Tove Jansson

56. “How nice to be on your own for a bit and do what you like.”

— Tove Jansson

57. “There’s no need to imagine that you’re a wondrous beauty, because that’s what you are.”

— Tove Jansson

58. “One can’t be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it.”

— Tove Jansson

59. “Moomin need not have worried, for the Little My’s of this world are practically indestructible.”

— Tove Jansson

60. “You’re an idiot,” Snufkin said. “Or still worse, you’re a story spoiler.”

— Tove Jansson

61. “Every year, the bright Scandinavian summer nights fade without anyone’s noticing. One evening in August you have an errand outdoors, and all of a sudden it’s pitch-black. It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive.”

— Tove Jansson

62. “My bag was as light as my happy-go-lucky heart.”

— Tove Jansson

63. “The Snork Maiden looked around her. Then she leaned forward and whispered in the Fillyjonk’s outstretched ear: “First you must turn seven times around yourself, mumbling a little and stamping your feet. Then you go backward to a well, and turn around, and look down in it. And then, down in the water, you’ll see the person you’re going to marry!” “And how do you get him up from there?” asked the Fillyjonk excitedly.”

— Tove Jansson

64. “It’s only the sea,’ said Moomintroll. ‘Every wave that dies on the beach sings a little song to a shell. But you mustn’t go inside because it’s a labyrinth and you may never come out again.”

— Tove Jansson

65. “Here is the most valuable thing in the whole of Moomin Valley, Groke! Do you know what has grown out of this hat? Raspberry juice and fruit trees, and the most beautiful little self-propelling clouds: the only Hobgoblin’s Hat in the world!”

— Tove Jansson

66. “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.”

— Tove Jansson

67. “Clever of you, Hemul. But, on the other hand, think how lonely the Groke is because nobody likes her, and she hates everybody. The Contents is perhaps the only thing she has. Would you now take that away from her too – lonely and rejected in the night?” Sniff became more and more affected and his voice trembled. “Cheated out of her only possession by Thingumy and Bob.” He blew his nose and couldn’t go on.”

— Tove Jansson

68. “One makes a trip by day, but by night one sets out on a journey.”

— Tove Jansson

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

— Tove Jansson

70. “Alexander was in the grip of a passion for perfection. He was not aware of how closely, how perilously, perfectionism and fanaticism are related.”

— Tove Jansson

71. “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.”

— Tove Jansson

72. “For a while she considered being ill, but she changed her mind...”

— Tove Jansson

73. “Don’t worry we shall have wonderful dreams, and when we wake up it’ll be spring.”

— Tove Jansson

74. “It’s risky to talk about one’s most secret dreams a bit too early.”

— Tove Jansson

75. “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

76. “How easy it is to love.”

— Tove Jansson

77. “Of course, Moomintrolls don’t wear clothes, except sometimes in bed.”

— Tove Jansson

78. “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

79. “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

80. “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.”

— Tove Jansson

81. “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

82. “Why do you smile all the time?” he said. “Because I am looking at you,” she said.”

— Tove Jansson

83. “We’ll always keep our bangles in brown pond water in the future. They’re so much more beautiful that way.”

— Tove Jansson

84. “The room had lost its morning light, the glow of expectation and potential. The daylight was now gray, and the new day was already used, a little soiled by mistaken thoughts and makeshift undertakings.”

— Tove Jansson

85. “The promises made by a guilty conscience acknowledge and settle no debts...”

— Tove Jansson

86. “Malander had an idea and was trying to work it out, but it would take him time. Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn’t even realise that they forgotten.”

— Tove Jansson

87. “The voice of the waves was now mixed with strange sounds; laughter, running feet and the clanging of great bells far out to sea. Snufkin lay still and listened. dreaming and remembering his trip round world. Soon I must set out again, he thought. But not yet.”

— Tove Jansson

88. “And I was sitting on my verandah believing they were so remarkable and free, just because they never spoke a word and were always on the move. They hadn’t a single word to say and nowhere to go...”

— Tove Jansson

89. “When they reached the top of the hill they turned and looked down at the valley. Moominhouse was just a blue dot, and the river a narrow ribbon of green: the swing they couldn’t see at all. “We’ve never been such a long way from home before,” said Moomintroll, and a little goose-fleshy thrill of excitement came over them at the thought.”

— Tove Jansson

90. “There one is safe. In a museum or in a lap or in a tree. Perhaps under the bedclothes. But the best thing of all is to sit high up in a tree, that is if one isn’t still inside one’s Mummy’s tummy.”

— Tove Jansson

91. “She had picked the spot the day before and carried out a stool low enough to sit on and still have her paintbox and her water cup within reach. Anna didn’t use an easel. Easels seemed to her an altogether too assertive aid, too obvious. She liked to work as unobtrusively as possible, the paper spread on a board in her lap, close to her hand.”

— Tove Jansson

92. “Hennes egen storm var alltid den hemskaste.”

— Tove Jansson

93. “Sometimes people are very predictable: they want a kitten in June, for example, and come the first of September they want someone to drown their cat. So someone does. But other times, people have dreams and things they want they can keep. Eriksson was the man who fulfilled these dreams. No one knew exactly what he found for himself along the way – probably a lot less than people thought. But he went on doing it anyway, perhaps for the sake of the search.”

— Tove Jansson

94. “Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else’s snakes can ever be as awful.”

— Tove Jansson

95. “And that night he couldn’t sleep, but lay looking out at the light June night which was full of lonely whisperings and rustlings and the pattering of feet. The air was sweet with the smell of flowers.”

— Tove Jansson

96. “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.”

— Tove Jansson

97. “The world’s asleep,’ Moomintroll thought. ‘It’s only I who am awake and sleepless. It’s only I who have to wander and wander, day after day and week upon week, until I too become a snowdrift that no one will even know about.”

— Tove Jansson

98. “Grandmother sat in the magic forest and carved outlandish animals. She cut them from branches and driftwood and gave them paws and faces, but she only hinted at what they looked like and never made them too distinct. They retained their wooden souls...”

— Tove Jansson

99. “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.”

— Tove Jansson

100. “It can be sad having a friend you’ve admired too much and seen too rarely and told too many things that you should have kept to yourself.”

— Tove Jansson