19 Quotes by Estonian authors

Estonian sayings walk softly, carrying the hush of pine forests and the brine of the Baltic. They favor spare words, dry humor, and a stubborn faith in work, weather, and waiting. You’ll hear the crackle of a Jaanipäev bonfire, the creak of a sauna door, the patience of bogs and rye fields. Literature joins in with clear-eyed melancholy and sudden warmth, songs that keep step in minor keys, epics that tramp through snow, reminding that silence can guide, and small deeds steady a life.

See the complete list of authors from Estonia

"Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God"

Arvo Part, Composer

"Throughout Soviet times, I understood what was really happening in the world around me"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"If geography is prose, maps are iconography"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"Traveling is the only passion that doesn't need to feel shy in front of intellect"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"I've never met a general yet who could milk a cow"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all"

Arvo Part, Composer

"I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener"

Arvo Part, Composer

"Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers - in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning"

Arvo Part, Composer

"That radio was very important for me. It meant I always knew what was going on in the world"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"Our civilisation has lost this bond between times, and tends to measure time with a yardstick, bit by bit, from one point to another"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"In the past, when I shot films about fishermen and hunters, I always had to admire their ability to perceive time in its entirety. The present was always temporary"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"History is more interesting than politics"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"Science will liberate us from the chains of big cities and lead us back to nature"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"Looking in the mirror to check if my tie is straight is a waste of my time. I only look in the mirror once a day, and that's in the morning when I shave"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"With that radio I was always swimming with the current political streams in the West. I was never stranded"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"Security is like virginity: you're either a virgin or you're not. You either have security or you don't"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"I am not always happy with the compliments Estonia has received"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"I was too busy looking into Yeltsin's eyes to notice what was under the table"

Lennart Meri, Statesman

"I have a figure, and there aren't many girls out there right now who have that"

Carmen Kass, Model

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