Quotes About Finland

The thing is, Finland is such a small country. It only has a population of five million, which is half of London. There's nothing there. I just had to get out. The U.K. is the perfect place to come.

Recently SCHISMATRIX became my first novel to come out in Finland. Perhaps there's a quality in a good translation that can't be captured with the original.

In Finland they are brilliant at ensuring no young person falls behind. From the day a child is born they are visited by health workers who assess their well-being and developmental. The health workers work with psychologists and speech therapists and aim to identify any problems at a very early stage.

There is an old joke in Finland, a country proud of its collective introspective character and shyness. "How do you know when a Finnish man likes a woman? He stares at her shoes instead of his.

Eventually, in '84, we made a film for a little over a million dollars - with American actors that was shot in English - that was shown in Finland A little action film called Born American.

Gun control zealots compare the United States and England to show that murder rates are lower where restrictions on ownership of firearms are more severe. But you could just as easily compare Switzerland and Germany, the Swiss having lower murder rates than the Germans, even though gun ownership is three times higher in Switzerland. Other countries with high rates of gun ownership and low murder rates include Israel, New Zealand, and Finland.

How did the Finns build the best readers in the world? By eliminating standardized testing and emphasizing the importance of reading and critical thinking, by nurturing deeper thinking and creativity, and by leading their students away from the drill-and-kill instructional approach that is currently permeating American schools.

I was always the flamboyant one and the one who wanted to be really bubbly and wanted to perform in a big way, but it's not very typical in Finland.

The entire country of Finland (to hear Otto tell it) has been plunged into an endless night of existential despair and suicidal depression. The usual antidotes have been exhausted: self-flagellation with steeped birch twigs, mordant humor, week-long drinking bouts. The only thing to save Finland now is coffee.

A lot of my family follow Liverpool, including my dad Tero and my uncle. In Finland I would say Liverpool is the biggest team, it started in the 1980s with the games on the TV. And then obviously they have had two Finland legends in Jari Litmanen and Sami Hyypia.

Like several hundred thousand fellow Karelians, we became refugees in our own country as great power politics caused the borders of Finland to be redrawn and left my home town as part of the Soviet Union.

The origins of my career as a peace mediator can be found from my childhood years. I was born in the city of Viipuri, then still part of Finland. We lost Viipuri when the Soviet Union attacked my country. Along with 400,000 fellow Karelians, I became an eternally displaced person in the rest of Finland.

In Finland, getting a university degree is the first thing that you expect your kids to do.

I would still not know that Finland had a cuisine, let alone that Kalakukko, a fish pie incorporating spiky bones and heads, was a cherished part of it. So

I haven't been baptised. My dad's not in the church and is not a religious person. My mum is more spiritual - she does Thai-chi and goes to Stonehenge and things like that. I'm proud to be pagan. Finland is not really a religious country. I'm still looking for my god.

If you'd tried to explain to me what a butterfly was back in the middle of Finland, I'd have grunted sceptically. Then torn your throat open and supped deep on your warm, life-giving blood.

I talked with labels and they wouldn't help with my international career. They said, 'Saara, if you're in Finland you just have to sing in Finnish.' That led to this situation where I felt very lonely. I was really sad and still I was doing gigs all the time. I'd go onstage crying but I was still trying to sing.

There are not actually many people in Finland who are openly gay together, let alone two women.

Finland is no utopia.

Suomi Suomi eikö meillä pelata shakkia ja jos pelataan niin millaisia saatanan nappuloita me ollaan? Ei kunua ei kuningatarta ja soltut talonpojat pelkkiä houruja, tornit hävinneet metsien myötä ja ratsut kaikki menossa makkaraksi, Suomi Suomi eikö sinulla ole kuin lähettejä, salkkuun rakastuneita kuriireja jotka luulee että maailma on liukuportaat ja himoitsee nukkua pressanlinnassa...

Why dig a hole in the garden, when potatoes grow wild in Finland?

I grew up in Finland, so it's cold in Finland, we have ice rinks outdoors.

Only Finland—superb, nay sublime—in the jaws of peril—Finland shows what free men can do.

I studied to be a car mechanic. That was my plan B. Servicing cars and changing tyres in Finland.