author

Tove Jansson Quotes

29 of the best book quotes from Tove Jansson

″‘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

author

The Summer Book

book

Sophia (The Summer Book)

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Grandmother (The Summer Book)

characters

love

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loving deeply

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loving more

concepts

“Even potted plants got to be a responsibility, like everything else you took care of that couldn’t make decisions for itself.”

Tove Jansson

author

The Summer Book

book

Grandmother (The Summer Book)

character

responsibility

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plants

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unable to make decisions

concepts

″‘It’s funny about me,’ Sophia said. ‘I always feel like such a nice girl whenever there’s a storm.‘”

Tove Jansson

author

The Summer Book

book

Sophia (The Summer Book)

character

storms

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funny

ᐧ

nice girl

concepts

“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

author

God

person

The Summer Book

book

Grandmother (The Summer Book)

character

help

ᐧ

own efforts

concepts

“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

author

The Summer Book

book

Sophia (The Summer Book)

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Papa (The Summer Book)

characters

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concepts

“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

author

The Summer Book

book

Grandmother (The Summer Book)

character

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ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

“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.”

Tove Jansson

author

The Summer Book

book

Grandmother (The Summer Book)

character

red

ᐧ

gathering

ᐧ

white

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seeing what you want to see

concepts

“You let go of everything and get ready and just dive. You can feel the seaweed against your legs. It’s brown, and the water’s clear, lighter towards the top, with lots of bubbles. And you glide. You hold your breath and glide and turn and come up, let yourself rise and breathe out. And then you float. Just float.”

Tove Jansson

author

The Summer Book

book

Grandmother (The Summer Book)

character

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ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

“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.”

Tove Jansson

author

The Summer Book

book

Sophia (The Summer Book)

character

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

″...you can’t depend on people who just let things happen.”

Tove Jansson

author

The Summer Book

book

Sophia (The Summer Book)

character

happen

ᐧ

letting things be

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dependent

concepts

“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.”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

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ᐧ

characters

ᐧ

ᐧ

doing whatever you want

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worry free

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making room

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full

concepts

“And that was how they found the Hobgoblin’s Hat and took it home with them, without guessing for one moment that this would cast a spell on the Valley of the Moomins, and that before long they would all see strange things...”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

ᐧ

ᐧ

characters

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

"the Hobgoblin's Hat"

concepts

“The Spirits that haunted the trees sat combing their long hair, and on the north side of the tree trunks, baby mice dug tunnels amongst the snowflakes. ‘Happy Spring!’ said an elderly Earthworm.”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

character

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ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

“I’m afraid we shall waste an awful lot of time.”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

Moomintroll

character

waste of time

ᐧ

afraid

concepts

″‘Now you’ve got a new piece of furniture again,’ he said, grinning, for Snufkin could never understand why people liked to have things. He was quite happy wearing the old suit he had had since he was born and the only possession he didn’t give away was his mouth-organ.”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

ᐧ

characters

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

″‘That’s most extraordinary,’ said the Hemulen. ‘But I’m so used to your doing extraordinary things that nothing surprises me.‘”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

ᐧ

characters

ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

″‘It’s finished. There isn’t a stamp, or an error that I haven’t collected. Not one. What shall I do now?’ ‘I think I’m beginning to understand,’ said Moomintroll slowly. ‘You aren’t a collector anymore, you’re only an owner, and that isn’t nearly so much fun.‘”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

ᐧ

characters

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

needing a new purpose

concepts

“As everyone knows, if the first butterfly you see is yellow the summer will be a happy one. If it is white then you will just have a quiet summer. Black and brown butterflies should never be talked about- they are much too sad.”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

Narrator (Finn Family Moomintroll)

character

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concepts

“But this butterfly was golden. ‘What can that mean?’ said Moomintroll. ‘I’ve never seen a golden butterfly before.’ ‘Gold is even better than yellow,’ said the Snork Maiden.”

Tove Jansson

author

Finn Family Moomintroll

book

ᐧ

characters

ᐧ

ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

″‘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.‘”

author

book

character

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ᐧ

ᐧ

concepts

″‘You can carry the provisions,’ he said, ‘because you haven’t got anything else to do, have you? I’m too busy to think about things like that when I’m the Path Pioneer.‘”

author

book

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characters

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concepts

″‘It must be the sea!’ exclaimed Moomintroll with a whoop of joy, and he started running upwind, his heart thumping with excitement, for if there is anything Moomintrolls really love, it is swimming.”

author

book

character

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concepts

“May the ground swallow me up, may old hags rattle my dry bones, and may I never more eat ice cream if I don’t guard this secret with my life.”

author

book

character

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concepts

″‘Don’t disturb me,’ said Sniff solemnly. ‘This is the biggest moment of my life so far, and it’s my first cave.‘”

author

book

character

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concepts

“If you fly hundreds and hundreds of miles up into the sky you come to where it isn’t blue anymore. It’s quite black. In the daytime, too.”

author

book

character

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concepts

″‘And I found something that begins with C and ends with E!’ squeaked Sniff. ‘And somewhere in the middle there’s an A and a V- but I won’t say any more.‘”

author

book

character

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concepts

″‘I am the Muskrat,’ said the wretched creature faintly. ‘A philosopher, you know. I should just like to point out that your bridge-building activities have completely ruined my house in the river bank, and although it ultimately doesn’t matter what happens, I must say even a philosopher does not care for being soaked to the skin.‘”

author

book

character

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concepts

“It was only a hole I lived in, but I was happy there. Of course, it’s all the same to a philosopher whether he is happy or not, but it was a good hole...”

author

book

character

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