Meik Wiking > Quotes

“Live life today like there is no coffee tomorrow.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“Benjamin Franklin said it best: “Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience, rather than about things. It is about being with the people we love. A feeling of home. A feeling that we are safe, that we are shielded from the world and allow ourselves to let our guard down.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“We are social creatures, and the importance of this is clearly seen when one compares the satisfaction people feel in relationships with their overall satisfaction with life. The most important social relationships are close relationships in which you experience things together with others, and experience being understood; where you share thoughts and feelings, and both give and receive support. In one word: hygge.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“Harmony: It's not a competition. We already like you. There is no need to brag about your achievements.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“The closest you will ever come to seeing vampires burnt by daylight is by inviting a group of Danes for a hygge dinner and then placing them under a 5,000K fluorescent light tube. At first, they will squint, trying to examine the torture device you have placed in the ceiling. Then, as dinner begins, observe how they will move uncomfortably around in their chairs, compulsively scratching and trying to suppress twitches.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“It doesn’t cost money to light a room correctly—but it does require culture.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“In the summertime, you are allowed to go for a wider range of colors, even something crazily flamboyant like gray.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“So, to all you introverts out there, do not feel embarrassed or boring for being a person who prefers things that are hygge.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“5. GRATITUDE Take it in. This might be as good as it gets.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“Hygge has been called everything from “the art of creating intimacy,” “coziness of the soul,” and “the absence of annoyance,” to “taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things,” “cozy togetherness,” and my personal favorite, “cocoa by candlelight”.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“A city is successful not when it’s rich but when its people are happy. Creating bikeability and walkability shows respect for human dignity. We’re telling people, ‘You are important—not because you’re rich, but because you are human.’ If people are treated as special, as sacred, even, they behave that way. We need to walk just as birds need to fly. Creating public spaces is one way to lead us to a society that is not only more equal but also much happier.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“Like most things, the more we have of something, the less happiness we derive from it. The first slice of cake: awesome. The fifth slice: not so good.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“Gratitude is more than just a simple "thank you" when you receive a gift. It is about keeping in mind that you live right now, allowing yourself to focus on the moment and appreciate the life you lead, to focus on all that you do have, not what you don't. Cliches? Totally.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“You cannot buy the right atmosphere or a sense of togetherness. You cannot hygge if you are in a hurry or stressed out, and the art of creating intimacy cannot be bought by anything but time, interest and engagement in the people around you.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“(P)sychologists at the new School for Social Research found that fiction books improve our ability to register and read others' emotions and, according to an article in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, research also shows that literary fiction enhances our ability to reflect on our problems through reading about characters who are facing similar issues and problems.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“To paraphrase one of the greatest philosophers of our time-Winnie-the-Pooh-when asked how to spell a certain emotion, "You don't spell it, you feel it.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“See experiences as an investment in happy memories and in your personal story and development.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“The results of five experiments involving more than a thousand participants showed that reading literary fiction improves our ability to detect and understand other people's emotions. But it can't be any sort of fiction. The researchers distinguished between "popular fiction" (where the author leads you by the hand as a reader) and "literary fiction" (in which you must find your own way and fill in the gaps). Instead of being told why a certain character behaves as they do, you have to figure it out yourself. That way, the book becomes not just a simulation of a social experience, it is a social experience.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transport. It is where the rich walk and where they use bikes. We should create cities where rich and poor meet as equals: in parks, on the sidewalks, on public transport.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People

“We were all tired after hiking and were half asleep, sitting in a semicircle around the fireplace in the cabin, wearing big sweaters and woolen socks. The only sounds you could hear were the stew boiling, the sparks from the fireplace, and someone having a sip of mulled wine. Then one of my friends broke the silence. “Could this be any more hygge?” he asked rhetorically. “Yes,” one of the women said after a moment. “If there was a storm raging outside.” We all nodded.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“Hygge is about giving your responsible, stressed-out achiever adult a break. Relax.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“If I cannot ask people directly how happy they are, I ask them how satisfied they are with their social relationships, because that gives me the answer.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“Remember: Danes are direct descendants of Vikings, so we enjoy watching things burn: bonfires, candles, villages. It's all good.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“Hygge is humble and slow. It is choosing rustic over new, simple over posh and ambience over excitement. In many ways, hygge might be the Danish cousin to slow and simple living.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“For the ambitious among us, once we reach our goal we soon formulate another to pursue. This is the hedonic treadmill. We continuously raise the bar for what we want or feel we need in order to be happy - and the hedonic treadmill spins faster with ambition. In other words, the downside to being ambitious is a constant sense of dissatisfaction with our achievements.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People

“Adults are not supposed to play. We are supposed to stress, have worries and be too busy dealing with life's problems. But according to a study undertaken by Princeton University and led by Alan Krueger, Professor in Economics and Public Affairs there, we are happiest when we are involved in engaging leisure activities.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“THE HYGGE MANIFESTO 1. ATMOSPHERE Turn down the lights. 2. PRESENCE Be here now. Turn off the phones. 3. PLEASURE Coffee, chocolate, cookies, cakes, candy. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 4. EQUALITY “We” over “me.” Share the tasks and the airtime. 5. GRATITUDE Take it in. This might be as good as it gets. 6. HARMONY It’s not a competition. We already like you. There is no need to brag about your achievements. 7. COMFORT Get comfy. Take a break. It’s all about relaxation. 8. TRUCE No drama. Let’s discuss politics another day. 9. TOGETHERNESS Build relationships and narratives. “Do you remember the time we . . . ?” 10. SHELTER This is your tribe. This is a place of peace and security.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living

“What better way of remembering the ones that we have lost, than by cooking their favorite meal.”
― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well