Heart-Warming Quotes from Books by Tove Jansson

This time, I invite you to enjoy the collection of thoughts from the books by Tove Marika Jansson, a world-renowned Finnish writer, novelist, painter, illustrator, and comic strip author. She is mostly known as the creator of the Moomins universe, which started as children’s books she wrote and illustrated, and was adapted later for the theater and film. The adventures of Moomins belong to the literary heritage loved by many generations. Let’s get inspired and have fun with a bunch of heart-warming book quotes by Tove Jansson.

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One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago I met a little girl with a book under her arm.
I asked her why she was out so early and she answered that there were too many books and far too little time. And there she was absolutely right.

(Tove Jansson)

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I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream!

(Tove Jansson)

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You can’t ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.

(Tove Jansson)

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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.”

(Tove Jansson)

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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.

(Tove Jansson)

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All things are so very uncertain, and that’s exactly what makes me feel reassured.

(Tove Jansson)

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You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is.

(Tove Jansson)

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“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)

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A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world, because that’s where people are shown what they could be if they wanted, and what they’d like to be if they dared to and what they really are.

(Tove Jansson)

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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)

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It was a particularly good evening to begin a book.

(Tove Jansson)

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Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It’s very easy to enjoy yourself.

(Tove Jansson)

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The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It’s a time for protecting and securing things and for making sure you’ve got in as many supplies as you can. It’s nice to gather together everything you possess as close to you as possible, to store up your warmth and your thoughts and burrow yourself into a deep hole inside, a core of safety where you can defend what is important and precious and your very own. Then the cold and the storms and the darkness can do their worst. They can grope their way up the walls looking for a way in, but they won’t find one, everything is shut, and you sit inside, laughing in your warmth and your solitude, for you have had foresight.

(Tove Jansson)

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

(Tove Jansson)

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

(Tove Jansson)

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

(Tove Jansson)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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“It’s funny about paths and rivers,” he mused. “You see them go by, and suddenly you feel upset and want to be somewhere else–wherever the path or the river is going, perhaps.”

(Tove Jansson)

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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)

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I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones; they’re the most important.

(Tove Jansson)

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There are those who stay at home and those who go away, and it has always been so. Everyone can choose for himself, but he must choose while there is still time and never change his mind.

(Tove Jansson)

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“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)

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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)

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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)

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

(Tove Jansson)

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“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)

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Wise as she was, she realized that people can postpone their rebellious phases until they’re eighty-five years old, and she decided to keep an eye on herself.

(Tove Jansson)

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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)

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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)

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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…

(Tove Jansson)

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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)

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“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)

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There are empty spaces that must be respected – those often long periods when a person can’t see the pictures or find the words and needs to be left alone.

(Tove Jansson)

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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 realize that they had forgotten.

(Tove Jansson)

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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)

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All men have parties and are pals who never let each other down. A pal can say terrible things which are forgotten the next day. A pal never forgives, he just forgets, and a woman forgives but never forgets. That’s how it is. That’s why women aren’t allowed to have parties. Being forgiven is very unpleasant.

(Tove Jansson)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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