111 Quotes About Hygge

The Danes, considered to be among the happiest people in the world, have enjoyed hygge for hundreds of years. Denmark's high standard of living, decent healthcare, gender equality, accessible education and equitable distribution of wealth all contribute to the measurable happiness of the Danish people. But a determined pursuit of happiness doesn't necessarily lead to wellbeing. At the heart of Danish life, and at the core of hygge, is a deeper stability of contentment.

Home is an emotional state, a place in the imagination where feelings of security, belonging, placement, family, protection, memory and personal history abide. -Thomas Moore

Considering family togetherness seems promising for understanding hygge in its most basic form. When we refer to hygge, we are using the concept of home and family to think with. -Jeppe Trolle Linnet

Hygge gives us a framework to support our very human needs, desires and habits. To learn to hygge is to take practical steps to evoke it - to shelter, cluster, enclose, embrace, comfort and warm ourselves and each other. Cultivating the habits of balance, moderation, care and observance will then comfortably entire more hygge in our daily lives.

How we need that security. How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm. To rest and trust; to give your soul in confidence: I need this. I need someone to pour myself into. -Sylvia Plath

...to hold twilight or watch it darken, describes the pleasure we take in pausing to observe as day slips into night. To stand at our window, wrapped in the half-dark and watch the day disappear... is a moment of hygge.

Hygge happens when we commit to the pleasure of the present moment in its simplicity. It's there in the things we do that give everyday life value and meaning, that comfort us, make us feel at home, rooted and generous.

...how a familiar room slowly changes colour as morning arrives.

The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. -Ludwig Wittgenstein