Those damn Moomins. I don’t want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.

Small animals are a great problem. I wish God had never created small animals, or else that He had made them so they could talk, or else that He’d given them better faces. Space. Take...

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

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

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

People idealise their animals, and at the same time they patronisingly overlook a dog’s natural life – biting fleas, burying bones, rolling in garbage, barking up an empty tree all night… But what do they...

Najednou se muminka zmocnila taková radost, že se musel odebrat do samoty. Okdráčel pomalu ke kůlně. A když ho nikdo neviděl, dal se do běhu. Běžel v roztálém sněhu, slunce se mu opíralo do zad...

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...

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...

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...

I wonder if the nursery and the chamber of horrors are as far apart as people think?

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...

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.

Mummy weighed sweets and nuts so that everyone would get exactly the same amount. During the year, everything is measured roughly, but at Christmas, it has to be absolutely fair. That’s why it’s such a...

And all you can do is just read,” she said. She raised her voice an screamed, “You just read and read and read!” Then she threw herself down on the table and wept.

Nothing is as peaceful as when Christmas is over, when one has been forgiven for everything and can be normal again.

Det var en som kom til mamma og sa: “Deres datter er usedvanlig, hun snakker aldri stygt om noen.” Jeg husker det, jeg husker det helt tydelig. Men hvorfor? Stolte jeg på dem? Eller var...

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

No. She reads literature.

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

The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn’t know.

Sometimes it’s better to look at things than own them… owning means anxiety and lots of bags to carry around.

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

Pearls’ burst out the Snork Maiden excitedly. ‘Could ankle rings be made out of pearls?”I should think they could,’ said Moomintoll. ‘Ankle-rings, and nose-rings and ear-rings and engagement rings…

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

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...

Jag trur inte att jag helt och hållet är lesbisk… och mitt förhållande til männen er oförandrat.

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...

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.

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...

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...

Grandmother walked up over the bare granite and thought about birds in general. It seemed to her no other creature had the same dramatic capacity to underline and perfect events — the shifts in the...

For a while she considered being ill, but she changed her mind…

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...

a person can also find solitude with others, though it is more difficult

All men are chums who will never leave each other in the lurch. A chum doesn’t forgive, he just forgets – women forgive everything but never forget. Being forgiven is very unpleasant.

Sophia and Grandmother sat down by the shore to discuss the matter further. It was a pretty day, and the sea was running a long, windless swell. It was on days just like this–dog days–that...

The garnets,’ Sniff moaned. ‘I didn’t get a single one.’ Snufkin sat down beside him and said kindly: ‘I know. But that’s how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now I just...

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...

I cannot stress enough the perils of your friends marrying or becoming court inventors. One day you are all a society of outlaws, adventurous comrades and companions who will be pushing off somewhere or other...

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.

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.

Man gjemmer ting og så begynner det å lukte.

Allra mest tyckte jag om att få var svinaktig med Hitler og Stalin.

You were talking about the wind,” the Fillyjonk said suddenly. “A wind that carries off your washing. But I’m speaking about cyclones. Typhoons, Gaffsie dear. Tornadoes, whirlwinds, sandstorms… Flood waves that carry houses away… But...

It was the winter of war, in 1939. It felt completely pointless to try to create pictures… I suddenly felt an urge to write down something that was to begin with ‘Once upon a time.’

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...

I know I do everything. I’ve been doing everything for an awfully long time, and I’ve seen and lived as hard as I could, and it’s been unbelievable, I tell you, unbelievable. But now I...

When one’s dead, one’s dead… This squirrel will become earth all in his time. And still later on, there’ll grow new trees from him, with new squirrels skipping about in them. Do you think that’s...

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...