I own everything I see and everything that pleases me. I own the entire world.
— Snufkin, The Moomins (via kadotaan)
Gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you’re looking for. If you’re picking raspberries, you only see what’s red, and if you’re looking for bones you only see the white. No matter where you go, the only thing you see is bones.
— Tove Jansson, The Summer Book (via dylansp)
I am not always nice and friendly — the reason is simple; I don’t have the time.
— Snufkin (via moomintrolllove)
“One summer, Sophia was suddenly afraid of small animals, and the smaller they were, the more afraid she was. This was altogether new. Ever since the first time she trapped a spider in a matchbox in order to make it a pet, her summers had been full of caterpillars, tadpoles, worms, beetles, and similar uncompanionable creatures, whom she provided with everything they could want from life, including, eventually, their freedom. 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 of 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, “The Summer Book” (via clericalerror)
(via littletoft)
The following morning the whole family awoke at the same time. They were awakened in exactly the right way: by a merrily tinkling barrel-organ. Too-ticky was turning the crank, standing under the dripping roof-edge in her sky-blue cap that was turned inside out. The sky itself was no lighter blue. The silver mountings on her barrel-organ glinted in the sun. At her side sat Little My, half-proud and half-embarrassed, because she had tried with her own paws to repair the tea-cosy, and she had scoured the silver tray with sand. Neither article fared quite well from it, but, very probably, intentions are more important than results.
— Tove Jansson — Moominland Midwinter (via vederlicht)
… and in front of them stretched the great Unknown, wild and enticing.
— Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland (via thureris)
(via fuckyeahmoomins)
Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world.
— Tove Jansson, Moominpappa at sea (via mellierau)
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, Moominpappa at sea (via mellierau)
(via fuckyeahmoomins)
Every little creature has a bow upon its tail.
Hemulens with flowered crowns hold garlands from the vale.
Little maiden Misabel sings, “Sadness, leave us, please,”
Whomper dances to the moon that sinks behind the trees.
Crimson tulips bloom behind the Moomin house so blue,
They wave a cheery welcome to the morning dawn and you.
The shining day is ending, time to turn in for the night,
Mymble seeks the hat she lost, the one that suits her right.
— Every Little Creature Has A Bow Upon Its Tail — Tove Jansson (via vederlicht)
Oh, to be a Moomin and to dance in the waves while the sun gets up!
— Tove Jansson, Finn Family Moomintroll (via readlikeabutterfly)
