Tove Jansson Quotes

I love seeing what people are eating. It's a great way of looking at what is similar and what is different about people. It's sociology and anthropology and history rolled into one.

One can't be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it.

You learn more about a person from the people around that person than you do from the person themselves. We all have our own ideas of who we are that may or may not be justified, and you can really find out a heck of a lot more accurately from the people around an individual.

Anytime we're interacting with someone, we're judging them, we're sharing expectations, we think they didn't live up to those expectations.

I judge everybody on the Farage Test. Number one, would I employ them? Number two, would I go for a drink with them?

Appearance matters a great deal because you can often tell a lot about people by looking at how they present themselves.

If you don't really know someone, everyone forms an opinion. That's part of life.

Person-to-person, most people are honest.

Early in my life I had made a pact with myself. I would never eat anything that moved when I cooked it, excited the dog, or inflated upon impact with my teeth.

What people are perceiving will dictate what their life and ultimately what your interaction is.

All social life is essentially practical. All mysterious which lead theory to mysticism find their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of the practice.

We can only love a person who eats what we eat.

I like the idea of reading into people's faces when they're not emoting. Some people are fascinated, some are sympathizing.

when you judge the power that is in a person, you must judge their capacities as both friend and as enemy.

Man has long found solace in good talk to offset bad conduct.

People talk of situations, read books, repeat quotations.

A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being 'frank'.

People make first judgments about people based on their appearance. There's an old saying, "The clothes make the man.".

As soon as any one is near me, his personality disturbs my self-complacency and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours I begin to hate the best of men: one because he's too long over his dinner; another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity.

Everybody is an actor in one way or another. We are all performing certain things.

It is oftener by the estimation of our own feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish to attract their praise.

Human paint, produce films and videos; they dance, dream and make music; they engage in political action, exchange goods, perform rituals, build houses start wars, act in plays, try to please patrons- and so on... They contain patterns, press the practitioners to "conform" and in this way mold their thought, their perception, their actions, and their discriminative abilities.

Air and manners are more expressive than words.

With people too, you constantly think, "If I'm nice to people and treat them well, they'll appreciate it and behave better." They won't, but it's still not a bad way to live.

Curiosity and courtesy are very often at variance.