''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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the emptiness of a life devoid of emotional experiences.
Tove Jansson's quote highlights the importance of emotions and experiences in life. It suggests that without the pain of disappointment, the joy of love, and the vulnerabilities of existence, life would be utterly dull and lacking fulfillment. The quote prompts us to recognize that our struggles and mistakes enrich our experiences and contribute to a fully lived life.
In practice
In a speech about embracing life’s challenges, you might say, 'As Tove Jansson wisely noted, what a terrible thing it would be to never feel joy or disappointment.'
Look at The Adventure. A boat by night is a wonderful sight. This is the way to start a new life, with a hurricane lamp shining at the top of the mast, and the coastline disappearing behind one as the whole world lies sleeping. Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world.
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.
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.
Smell is important. It reminds a person of all the things he's been through; it is a sheath of memories and security.
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.
...by and by a change came: I started to muse about the shape of my nose. I put my trivial surroundings aside and mused more and more about myself, and I found this to be a bewitching occupation. I stopped asking and longed instead to speak of my thoughts and feelings. Alas, there was no one besides myself who found me interesting.
We've all been brought up with the view that religion has some kind of special privileged status. You're not allowed to criticise it.
I realised that if I wished to write about the dark and not allow for hope, people would recognise it as false - because hope is the nub of what we are.
But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those that we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.
Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.
None of the modes by which a magistrate is appointed, popular election, the accident of the lot, or the accident of birth, affords, as far as we can perceive, much security for his being wiser than any of his neighbours. The chance of his being wiser than all his neighbours together is still smaller.
We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God
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