He could only just hear the barrel organ playing in the farthest corner of the valley, if he listened very closely. Moomintroll looked down into the water and tried to remember the time when the ice had stretched away and melted into the darkness of the horizon.
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 so very sad?
"Moominpappa missed his family and his veranda. He suddenly got the feeling that only there could he be as free and as adventurous as a good father should be."
'If you’re sore, you’re sore,' observed Little My, peeling her potatoes with her teeth. 'You have to be angry sometimes. Every little creep has a right to be angry.'
But that’s how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now, I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don’t have to carry a suitcase.
Walking had been easy, because his knapsack was nearly empty and he had no worries on his mind. He felt happy about the wood and the weather, and himself. Tomorrow and yesterday were both at a distance, and just at present the sun was shining brightly between the birches, and the air was cool and soft.
One can’t be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it.
The Hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn’t know.
One by one, the snowflakes floated down on to his warm snout, and melted. He reached out to grab them so he could admire them for a fleeting moment. He looked towards the sky and watched them drift down towards him, more and more, soft and light as a feather. ‘So that’s how it works,’ thought Moomintroll. ‘And I thought somehow that the snow grew from the ground up!
"I do not understand why the heroine in the book is always prettier than the one at home."
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.
'I'm frightened', whispered the smallest little one, pulling on Snufkin's sleeve. ‘Keep hold of me. Everything will be all right,’ comforted Snufkin. ‘It’s all over now, Sniff’ said Snufkin. ‘Don’t cry, dear friend.’