Michael Booth Quotes

#1. In Sweden, self-sufficiency and autonomy is all; [interpersonal] debt of any kind, be it emotional, a favor, or cash, is to be avoided at all cost. The Swedes don't even like to owe a round of drinks.

Michael Booth

#2. Living as a richer person among the poor is very stressful

Michael Booth

#3. Proper, deep, enduring joy usually requires a remarkable facility for denial, something which the Danes have in spades.

Michael Booth

#4. This country of just over five million people now has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. And

Michael Booth

#5. Hvad udad tabes, skal indad vindes. (What was lost without will be found within.)

Michael Booth

#6. To achieve authentic, sustained happiness, above all else you need to be in charge of your life, to be in control of who you want to be, and be able to make the appropriate changes if you are not.

Michael Booth

#7. This, truly, is the ugly side of rampant neo-liberalist capitalism," I thought to myself, leaving hurriedly. "Not even the Swedes would put Camembert and Tandoori sauce in a burger." The

Michael Booth

#8. Parochialism remains the Danes' defining characteristic, but their radically recalibrated sense of identity and national pride has created a curious duality best described as a kind of "humble pride," though many often mistake it for smugness.

Michael Booth

#9. The fund owns shares in over eight thousand companies, which effectively means that Norwegians own over 1 per cent of the world's listed companies, almost 2 per cent of Europe's and 0.7 per cent of Asia's.

Michael Booth

#10. They are funny, too. And not always intentionally, either, which as far as I am concerned is the very best kind of funny.

Michael Booth

#11. Norwegian racism is always a kind of racism that is not prepared to accept it being qualified as such. Because we're the good guys, and racism is what bad people do.

Michael Booth

#12. a country can be too small, too socially knitted, too tightly tied for its own good. Strong social networks can, in certain circumstances, turn to incestuous corruption and the shutting down of democratic discourse. You

Michael Booth

#13. If you are spending more time matching your Kitchenaid to your kettle to your cupboards than you are cooking, something is very wrong.

Michael Booth

#14. Perhaps Danish happiness is not really happiness at all, but something much more valuable and durable: contentedness, being satisfied with your lot, low-level needs being met, higher expectations being kept in check.

Michael Booth