Lessons That Moomins Can Teach You About Life

“I only want to live in peace and play potatoes and dream!”

It is only proper to warmly welcome anyone who comes to your house.

“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 to-morrow.”

It’s as important to know how to be alone as it is to know how to get along.

You don’t have to know something is true to believe in it.

Sometimes someone needs silence and solitude, and it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong .

“The very last house stood all by itself under a dark green wall of fir-trees, and here the wild country really began. Snufkin walked faster and faster straight into the forst. Then the door of the last house opened a chink and a very old voice cried: ‘Where are you off to?’
‘I don’t know,’ Snufkin replied.
The door shut again and Snufkin entered his forest, with a hundred miles of silence ahead of him.”

Even the strangest people you know may prove to be very helpful someday.

The people who keep houses warm and bellies full should be celebrated as heroes.

“‘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 heroes afterward.’”

Treat mysterious packages with the utmost care – you never know what might be inside!

 Punishing someone isn’t the only way to get them to behave.

Boats are the best way to get anywhere, especially if you’re a Toffle who wants to impress a beautiful girl.

Occasionally a good cry is just what you need to grow.

 Other times, you just need to talk to your friends.

Other times, you just need to talk to your friends.

One must strike a balance between freedom and duty.

 One must begin a journey at night-time.

“‘What is it?’ said Moomintroll. Discoveries were his very favourite thing (after mysterious paths, swimming and secrets, that is).”

Almost anything can be fixed with a song.

“‘Tonight is the night for a song,’ thought Snufkin. ‘I’ll think up a new song that is one part anticipation, two parts pining for spring, and the rest a joyous declaration of how wonderful it is to be alone and at peace with yourself.’”

Fitting in is not the most important thing.

Everyone needs to be told a good story now and then.

“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 and what they really are.”

Feelings are complicated and don’t always make sense.

Waking up while the rest of your family is still hibernating is not as fun as it sounds.

“Now he didn’t shout any more, because he thought how horrible it would be if nobody answered him.”

Sometimes one can’t help their feelings.

It is very hard to keep a secret from your family.

“One ought to have the right to discover a secret, keep it under wraps for a while, and then spring it on everyone. But if you live in a family, there is no point trying to have secret or arrange surprises of any kind. Everyone knows everything, right from the start, and that’s no fun at all.”

The best hats are top hats.

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

Night can either be scary or magical, depending on the company you keep.

“The faint whisper of rain and running water was still there and it had the same tender note of solitude and perfection.”

Life’s ups AND downs are all part of what makes one Moomin (or human).

Winter is rather difficult.

“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.”

Although the snow part is fantastic.

“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!’”

People with money will sometimes try and tell you what to do.

but they don’t own the flowers.

If Little My can do it, so can you.

Sometimes it is terribly difficult being one’s own self.

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

We all have a responsibility to help those that are smaller than us.

Anyone who loves pancakes or Moomins is probably a-ok.

“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.”

Sometimes a little mystery is more comforting than knowing all the answers.

One must be aware of the consequences of excess.

Translation:

“How can I be thirsty, when I’ve been…”

“…drinking all night?”

Moominmammas can fix everything.

“A deep sadness welled up inside Moomintroll as he gazed about. He thought of how frightened everyone in the entire world must be right now to see the ball of fire approaching. He thought about the se, the rain, the wind, the sunshine, the grass and the moss.. and how it would be impossible to live without them. Then he thought to himself, ‘But I am sure that Mamma will figure out a way to save us all.’”

One needs friends, not things, to have a home.

As long as you have a bit of nature, you should never be bored.

“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 very easy to enjoy yourself.”

 Being a collector…

is a lot more fun than being an owner.

Translation:

“Back to nature!”

“We only live once!”

“Responsibilities be damned.”

Everyone, no matter how little, has a right to be angry sometimes.

“‘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.’”

Even the saddest things can be not so very sad if you have the right attitude about them.

Most endings are also beginnings.