Estonian Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Estonian. Here they are! All 54 of them:

In every port in the world, at least two Estonians can be found.
Ernest Hemingway (To Have and Have Not)
After she returned and the Gray Man had been encouraged to sit down on the worn couch, Maura said, “I’ll warn you that if you try anything, Calla has Mace.” By way of demonstration, Calla handed him his drink and then removed a small black container of pepper spray from her small red purse. Maura gestured toward the third member of their group. “And Persephone is Russian.” “Estonian,” Persephone correctly softly. “And”—Maura made an extremely convincing fist—“I know how to punch a man’s nose into his brain.” “What a coincidence,” the Gray Man said genially. “So do I.
Maggie Stiefvater (The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2))
I'm very nearly drunk enough to be transcendent," Calla said after a space. She was not the only psychic drinking, but she was the closest one to transcendence. Persephone peered dubiously into the bottom of her own glass. In a very small voice (her voice was always small), she said sadly, "I am not drunk at all." Maura offered, "It's the Russian in you." "Estonian,"Persephone replied.
Maggie Stiefvater (The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2))
It would be easier to get a computer to cry than to get Estonians to share their innermost feelings.
Lembit Öpik (Xenophobe's Guide to the Estonians)
But it will make mistakes," she says. "Hadoop will probably get us from a hundred thousand buildings down to, like, five thousand." "So we're down to five days instead of five years." "Wrong!" Kat says. "Because guess what--we have ten thousand friends. It's called"--she clicks a tab triumphantly and fat yellow letters appear on the screen--"Mechanical Turk. Instead of sending jobs to computers, like Hadoop, it sends jobs to real people. Lots of them. Mostly Estonians." She commands King Hadoop and ten thousand Estonian footmen. She is unstoppable.
Robin Sloan (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, #1))
Kui sa tahad leida midagi uut, siis käi vanu radu.
Urmas Ott (Mister Fred)
a charming Estonian belief: “Thunder occurs when God, who is chasing the devil, catches and pulverizes him. Doors and windows are therefore shut during storms to deny the devil refuge in the house and prevent the latter from being struck by lightning.
Claude Lecouteux (The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices)
Political calculation and local suffering do not entirely explain the participation in these pogroms. Violence against Jews served to bring the Germans and elements of the local non-Jewish populations closer together. Anger was directed, as the Germans wished, toward the Jews, rather than against collaborators with the Soviet regime as such. People who reacted to the Germans' urging knew that they were pleasing their new masters, whether or not they believed that the Jews were responsible for their own woes. By their actions they were confirming the Nazi worldview. The act of killing Jews as revenge for NKVD executions confirmed the Nazi understanding of the Soviet Union as a Jewish state. Violence against Jews also allowed local Estonians, Latvian, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Poles who had themselves cooperated with the Soviet regime to escape any such taint. The idea that only Jews served communists was convenient not just for the occupiers but for some of the occupied as well. Yet this psychic nazification would have been much more difficult without the palpable evidence of Soviet atrocities. The pogroms took place where the Soviets had recently arrived and where Soviet power was recently installed, where for the previous months Soviet organs of coercion had organized arrests, executions, and deportations. They were a joint production, a Nazi edition of a Soviet text. P. 196
Timothy Snyder (Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin)
Olijaist sagedamini meenusid äraolijad, kaugeimad enim, nende väärtus oli kõrgeim.
Olev Remsu (Lapsepõlvest Malleta)
He who fears the wolf, should not go to the forest.
ESTONIAN
Kuna eestlased pole suured arvult, siis peavad nad selleks saama vaimult.
Jakob Hurt
Joonistamine on meetod tulla toime tundega, et kaotad mõistuse ja oled teiste melle vallas.
Natascha Kampusch (3096 Days)
started hearing people talking about racial issues. In the military, that really wasn’t even a thing as far as I experienced. No one cared if you were Black, Hispanic, or Estonian or whatever because we were all on the same team. We were a tribe. But we were fighting for this country where everyone was divided. I just thought, Are you people out of your minds?
Johnny Joey Jones (Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship)
It's normal to be 'normal'. Nothing is ever 'wonderful' or 'great' to an Estonian. Things are always a laconic 'usual' or, more normally, 'normal'. When an Estonian says that something is 'normal' it indicates that life is continuing on a safe, well-trodden path and that this is the way things should be. Too much excitement is treated as suspect. Essentially the Estonians agree with the Chinese curse: 'May you live in exciting times.
Lembit Öpik (Xenophobe's Guide to the Estonians)
The world became informed about the extent of the catastrophe and the losses by the big powers eclipsed the numbers of Estonias who perished. When counting Hitler's victims there was no interest in Stalin's victims. Stalin belonged among the victors. Since victors are not judged, a half century later it is still ignored that the number of Stalin's victims exceeds Hitler's (Applebaum 2003). In addition, only rarely does one hear references to the fact that Soviet union0s criminal acts have not been expiated.
Rutt Hinrikus (Carrying Linda's Stones: An Anthology of Estonian Women's Life Stories)
In a meeting, the Estonian president, Toomas Ilves, insisted to Obama that we had to take Putin at his word if he said he would take Kiev. Ilves had an academic manner, and he described methodically how Russia was using fake news and disinformation to turn Estonia’s Russian-speaking minority against Europe. Speaking in paragraphs, he tied together Putin, the emergence of right-wing political parties in Europe, and ISIL. These are people, he said, who fundamentally reject the legitimacy of the liberal order. They are looking for another form of legitimacy—one that is counter to our notion of progress. After the meeting, I joined Obama for lunch and told him I thought Ilves did the best job I’d heard of tying these disparate threads together, explaining a theory of the forces at work in the world without having to rely on a construct that roots them all in American foreign policy. Without missing a beat, Obama said, “That’s the same dynamic as with the Tea Party. I know those forces because my presidency has bumped up against them.” He paused. “It’s obviously manifest in different ways, but people always look to tear down an ‘other’ when they need legitimacy—immigrants, gays, minorities, other countries.
Ben Rhodes (The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House)
See ühiskond vajab Wolfgang Priklopili suguseid kurjategijaid, et anda nägu sellele kurjale, mis temas elab, ja see endast ise eraldada. Ta vaja pilte keldrikongidest, selleks et ei peaks nägema paljusid kortereid ja aedu, kus vägivald näitab oma kodanlikku palet. Ta kasutab minusuguseid kõmuliste juhtumite ohvreid selleks, et vabastada end vastututusest igapäevaseste kuritegude paljude nimetute ohvrite ees, keda ei aidata - isegi siis, kui nad abi paluvad.
Natascha Kampusch (3096 Days)
Stalin’s appeasement of Hitler had continued with a large increase in deliveries to Germany of grain, fuel, cotton, metals and rubber purchased in south-east Asia, circumventing the British blockade. During the period of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union had provided 26,000 tons of chromium, used in metal alloys, 140,000 tons of manganese and more than two millions tons of oil to the Reich. Despite having received well over eighty clear indications of a German invasion–indeed probably more than a hundred–Stalin seemed more concerned with ‘the security problem along our north-west frontier’, which meant the Baltic states. On the night of 14 June, a week before the German invasion, 60,000 Estonians, 34,000 Latvians and 38,000 Lithuanians were forced on to cattle trucks for deportation to camps in the distant interior of the Soviet Union. Stalin remained unconvinced even when, during the last week before the invasion, German ships rapidly left Soviet ports and embassy staff were evacuated.
Antony Beevor (The Second World War)
In March 1994, Putin attended a European Union event in Hamburg that included a speech by Estonian president Lennart Meri. Estonia, like the two other Baltic republics, was annexed by the Soviet Union at the start of World War II, then lost to the Germans, to be retaken by the Soviets in 1944. The three Baltic states were the last to be included in the Soviet empire and the first to emerge from it—in no small part because they had a population that still remembered a time before the Soviets. Meri, Estonia’s first democratically elected leader in half a century, had been active in the anti-Soviet liberation movement. Now, speaking in Hamburg, he referred to the Soviet Union as “occupiers.” At this point Putin, who had been sitting in the audience among Russian diplomats, rose and left the room. “It looked very impressive,” recalled a St. Petersburg colleague who would go on to run the Russian federal election commission under President Putin. “The meeting was held in Knights’ Hall, which has ten-meter-tall ceilings and a marble floor, and as he walked, in total silence, each step of his echoed under the ceiling. To top it all off, the huge cast-iron door slammed shut behind him with deafening thunder.
Masha Gessen (The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin)
That has left a gap in the global market—one that Estonia hopes to fill. Starting later this year, it will issue ID cards to non-resident “satellite Estonians”, thereby creating a global, government-standard digital identity. Applicants will pay a small fee, probably around €30-50 ($41-68), and provide the same biometric data and documents as Estonian residents. If all is in order, a card will be issued, or its virtual equivalent on a smartphone (held on a special secure module in the SIM card).
Anonymous
Ibizal teatavasti on veidraid nähtusi ja inimesi küllaga, see saar lausa tõmbab mingi magnetina kiiksuga inimesi ligi. Mina aga armastan veidrusi, sest neis on nii palju avastamisrõõmu. Teiste kiikse jälgides on vahel ka ennast kergem mõista või siis oma sallivuse piire kompida.
Kati Lumiste
In Munich, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a rare European NATO leader who has a clear picture of events, told Merkel that the choice was “surrender or arm Ukraine” — to no effect.
Anonymous
Estonian students, sitting in a café, impervious to the sparkling weather out of doors, impervious to the far roar of the world. It would not be so bad, if the café had an atmosphere of its own, if it could encourage the growth of an Estonian Boheme, throughout these winter months. But it has nothing of the sort. It is only a shabby reproduction of that indescribably vacuous institution: the typical northern-European café, where heavy red draperies shut out the healthy light of day; where coffee and cake is served on little tables with sticky imitation-marble tops and paper-napkins, where bored traveling salesmen read the daily papers and look at the women; where women sit patiently, by themselves, hoping to appear mysterious and romantic through their anonymity, hoping someday to encounter the shadowy Prince Charming, as he is encountered in fiction magazines; where a second-rate orchestra scrapes out tunes to which nobody listens—in short, where there is not even the lure of intoxication and vice and despair, but only sickening pretension, dullness, boredom, and stale air.
George F. Kennan (The Kennan Diaries)
During the championship of the Soviet Union in Leningrad in 1947 a group of players signed a collective letter in which Keres was branded a ‘collaborator’ and a ‘fascist’, and only out of malice master Klaman tossed out a phrase after a win against the Estonian grandmaster: ‘Well, guys, I’ve bumped off a fascist!
Genna Sosonko (Russian Silhouettes)
Is that what you call it now?” she said, and although her words might as well have been in Estonian, for all the sense they made, her tone was very clear, and it did not hold even the memory of anything pleasant. I
Jeff Lindsay (Double Dexter (Dexter #6))
Ingel said an Estonian woman never abandons her house or her animals, even if they walk in with their uniforms and guns, a whole battalion of them.
Sofi Oksanen (Purge)
M. Keith Chen, an economist now at UCLA, was one of the first to explore the connection between language and economic behavior. He first grouped thirty-six languages into two categories—those that have a strong future tense and those that have a weak or nonexistent one. Chen, an American who grew up in a Chinese-speaking household, offers the differences between English and Mandarin to illustrate the distinction. He says, “[I]f I wanted to explain to an English-speaking colleague why I can’t attend a meeting later today, I could not say ‘I go to a seminar.’” In English, Chen would have to explicitly mark the future by saying, “I will be going to a seminar” or “I have to go to a seminar.” However, Chen says, if “on the other hand I were speaking Mandarin, it would be quite natural for me to omit any marker of future time and say Wŏ qù tīng jiăngzò (I go listen seminar).”13 Strong-future languages such as English, Italian, and Korean require speakers to make sharp distinctions between the present and the future. Weak-future languages such as Mandarin, Finnish, and Estonian draw little or often no contrast at all. Chen then examined—controlling for income, education, age, and other factors—whether people speaking strong-future and weak-future languages behaved differently. They do—in somewhat stunning fashion. Chen found that speakers of weak-future languages—those that did not mark explicit differences between present and future—were 30 percent more likely to save for retirement and 24 percent less likely to smoke. They also practiced safer sex, exercised more regularly, and were both healthier and wealthier in retirement. This was true even within countries such as Switzerland, where some citizens spoke a weak-future language (German) and others a strong-future one (French).14 Chen didn’t conclude that the language a person speaks caused this behavior. It could merely reflect deeper differences. And the question of whether language actually shapes thought and therefore action remains a contentious issue in the field of linguistics.15 Nonetheless, other research has shown we plan more effectively and behave more responsibly when the future feels more closely connected to the current moment and our current selves. For example, one reason some people don’t save for retirement is that they somehow consider the future version of themselves a different person than the current version. But showing people age-advanced images of their own photographs can boost their propensity to save.16 Other research has found that simply thinking of the future in smaller time units—days, not years—“made people feel closer to their future self and less likely to feel that their current and future selves were not really the same person.”17 As with nostalgia, the highest function of the future is to enhance the significance of the present.
Daniel H. Pink (When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing)
Implementing the policy of national-territorial autonomy was one of the chief tasks of Narkomnats. To that end the commissariat was structured along national lines. Polish, Byelorussian, Latvian, Jewish, Armenian, and Moslem national commissariats were created within it, and national sections were set up to concern themselves with such smaller national groups on Russian territory as the Estonians, the Germans, the Kirghiz, the Kalmyks, and the mountain tribes of the Caucasus.
Robert C. Tucker (Stalin as Revolutionary: A Study in History and Personality, 1879-1929)
On June 4, a secret cable from the American embassy in Estonia reported an epochal event with an eye-popping headline: “WORLD’S FIRST VIRTUAL ATTACK AGAINST NATION STATE.” “Estonia has been the victim of the world’s first coordinated cyberattacks against a nation state and its political and economic infrastructure,” the embassy report began. “For over a month, government, banking, media, and other Estonian websites, servers, and routers came under a barrage of cyberattacks.… Experts cite the nature and sophistication of the attacks as proof of Russian government complicity
Tim Weiner (The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020)
By 2006, they had created an international exemplar of interconnectedness. Estonian software engineers had not only created Skype; they were helping to build a new society, where the only rituals requiring you to show up in person and present a document were marriage, divorce, and buying property. Everything else was online—government, banking, finance, insurance, communications, broadcast and print media, the balloting for elections. Wi-Fi was strong, ever present, and free. People began to call their homeland e-Estonia. They had created the first country whose political and social architectures were framed by an internet infrastructure—and perhaps the most technologically sophisticated nation on earth. In April 2007, the authorities in Tallinn decided to move the Bronze Soldier from its pedestal to a military cemetery. Estonian patriots found it offensive, Russian nationalists came to Estonia to rally around it, and the statue became a flash point of confrontation. Russia’s foreign affairs minister, Sergey Lavrov, called the decision disgusting; he warned of serious consequences for Estonia. An angry mob of Russians ran riot in the capital. In Moscow, young thugs laid siege to the Estonian embassy and forced it to shut down. And then Putin waged political warfare in a way that made Estonia’s strength its weakness.
Tim Weiner (The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020)
In it was the most exquisite, delicate, and all around unbelievably beautiful object I’d ever seen. “It’s a Haapsalu shawl—an Estonian wedding shawl. We each knit a section,” Fiona explained. I lifted it up by one edge and studied the fine, intricate lacework. My throat wouldn’t work. I tried to speak but I was completely overwhelmed. “Let me help you put it on. You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to, but we wanted to make something for you, and Kat found this pattern, so we all watched YouTube videos and learned how to do Estonian lace knitting.
Penny Reid (The Neanderthal Box Set)
Why wait passively for the next terrorist attack--or a nuclear missile launched by a rogue state, or a cyberattack emanating from China or from a group of disaffected Estonian teens-- when we could be eliminating the root causes of conflict by fostering economic development and good governance, building relationships, creating networks of agents and allies, collecting data, promoting "new narratives," or striking potential future enemies before they can develop the ability to harm us?
Rosa Brooks (How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon)
Because he was good!’ Smiley snapped, and there was a startled silence everywhere, while he recovered himself. ‘Vladimir’s father was an Estonian and a passionate Bolshevik, Oliver,’ he resumed in a calmer voice. ‘A professional man, a lawyer. Stalin rewarded his loyalty by murdering him in the purges. Vladimir was born Voldemar but he even changed his name to Vladimir out of allegiance to Moscow and the Revolution. He still wanted to believe, despite what they had done to his father. He joined the Red Army and by God’s grace missed being purged as well. The war promoted him, he fought like a lion, and when it was over, he waited for the great Russian liberalisation that he had been dreaming of, and the freeing of his own people. It never came. Instead, he witnessed the ruthless repression of his homeland by the government he had served. Scores of thousands of his fellow Estonians went to the camps, several of his own relatives among them.’ Lacon opened his mouth to interrupt, but wisely closed it. ‘The lucky ones escaped to Sweden and Germany. We’re talking of a population of a million sober, hard-working people, cut to bits. One night, in despair, he offered us his services. Us, the British. In Moscow. For three years after that he spied for us from the very heart of the capital. Risked everything for us, every day.
John le Carré (Smiley's People (George Smiley Series Book 7))
We are hardly the first victims of perfidious Soviet policy, which has, already several times in history, placed the interests of power of the Greater Russian Empire— which is probably the most suitable name for the true essence of the complicated little internal Soviet unions— above all the interests of proletarian internationalism. What was the annexation of the Baltic peoples, the Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians? To this day, he hatred these nations feel for the Russians is so great that a European [sic] cannot even comprehend it. Mladý svět (Young World), special edition no. 4, 26 August 1968
Josef Koudelka (Invasion 68: Prague)
Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.
Estonian Proverb
The twelve branches of Indo-European included most of the languages of Europe (but not Basque, Finnish, Estonian, or Magyar); the Persian language of Iran; Sanskrit and its many modern daughters (most important, Hindi and Urdu); and a number of extinct languages including Hittite in Anatolia (modern Turkey) and Tocharian in the deserts of Xinjiang (northwestern China) (figure 1.2). Modern English, like Yiddish and Swedish, is assigned to the Germanic branch.
David W. Anthony (The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World)
The old lady told us "Do not wake Ruhan'," Jake replied, "but who knew Ruhan was a chimpanzee? Apparently I said something that sounded like 'I ate your bananas' in Estonian.
Peter Lerangis (The Dead of Night (The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers, #3))
Whereas much of eastern Finland is marshy, lake-filled, and forested, making mass assaults with tanks and mechanized troops problematic, the Estonian border with Russia is not nearly as difficult for invaders. Cross a river or two and the path is clear to Tallinn. Historians still debate Konstantin Päts’s decision to capitulate to Stalin. I decided long ago, despite my enmity towards the man, that his decision saved, rather than cost, Estonian lives.
Mark Munger (Sukulaiset: The Kindred)
Yes, yes. I know. Poor judgment, that. But he at least was an Estonian, believed in Estonia. Most faculty members who thought like him have vanished. The communists also closed the theology department, which, since I wasn’t thinking of the ministry,” Karl said wryly, “didn’t affect me. But then they liquidated the Academy of Sciences,” Karl continued, his somber mood returning, “which had just formed. They also purged tens of thousands of ‘objectionable’ books from the university library.
Mark Munger (Sukulaiset: The Kindred)
In 1994, long before he came to power, at a meeting in Hamburg, the Estonian President Lennart Meri referred to the Russians as ‘occupiers’ and Putin dramatically stood up and led the Russian diplomats out of the conference
Matthias Strohn (The Long Shadow of World War II: The Legacy of the War and its Impact on Political and Military Thinking Since 1945)
Many Estonians speak Finnish since they grew up watching Finnish television broadcasts that were inadvertently transmitted over the Gulf of Finland acting as a window to the democratic west during Soviet occupation.
Jake Jacobs (The Giant Book Of Odd Facts (The Big Book Of Facts 12))
Sest ilu on see, mis jääb, kõik muu kaob. Hing kaob, vaim kaob, aga ilu ei kao, tema jääb. Sest kui keegi on ilu näinud, s. t. kui keegi on ilu nähes ilu tundnud, siis saab tema ise seeläbi ilusamaks, võtab tuntud, maitstud ilu endasse ja nõnda jääb ilu, kui kõik kaob. Eks ole see jumalik? Jääb see, mida tõeliselt pole olemaski, ja kaob see, mis olemas. Nii et kui Teie pisutki olete tundnud minu silmis ilu, siis elab see ilu teis edasi. Ma olen nii õnnelik seda mõeldes!
A.H. Tammsaare (Tõde ja õigus II)
Emal on õigus, kui ta ütleb, et eestlased on hullult toredad, aga nendega on kohutavalt raske rääkida, sest nad ei räägi vastu. Nad pigem hoiavad suu kinni, kaovad ära, lülitavad telefoni välja, vahivad üksinda langevaid tähti, jooksevad selgeltnägijate vahet, hakkavad jooma või hulguvad päevade kaupa inimtühjas rabas selle asemel, et oma kallimale paar ilusat sõna kuuldavale tuua. Aga no vahet pole! Ega te ise selles süüd ole
Kadri Hinrikus (Elevant)
«Eks ma vist oota ikka seda õiget. Lauldakse ju, et «igaühe jaoks on kuskil keegi». Küllap siis minugi jaoks on, ainult meie teed pole seni millegipärast ristunud.» «Räägitakse, et paralleelid ristuvad ainult lõpmatuses.» «Iganenud geomeetria.»
Raimond Kaugver (Suurte arvude seadus)
Alyosha heard Shukhov’s whispered prayer, and, turning to him: “There you are, Ivan Denisovich, your soul is begging to pray. Why don’t you give it it’s freedom?” Shukhov stole a look at him. Alyosha’s eyes glowed like two candles. “Well, Alyosha,” he said with a sigh, “it’s this way. Prayers are like those appeals of ours. Either they don’t get through or they’re returned with ‘rejected’ scrawled across ’em.” Outside the staff quarters were four sealed boxes–they were cleared by a security officer once a month. Many were the appeals that were dropped into them. The writers waited, counting the weeks: there’ll be a reply in two months, in one month. . . . But the reply doesn’t come. Or if it does it’s only “rejected.” “But, Ivan Denisovich, it’s because you pray too rarely, and badly at that. Without really trying. That’s why your prayers stay unanswered. One must never stop praying. If you have real faith you tell a mountain to move and it will move. . . .” Shukhov grinned and rolled another cigarette. He took a light from the Estonian. “Don’t talk nonsense, Alyosha. I’ve never seen a mountain move. Well, to tell the truth, I’ve never seen a mountain at all. But you, now, you prayed in the Caucasus with all that Baptist society of yours–did you make a single mountain move?” They were an unlucky group too. What harm did they do anyone by praying to God? Every damn one of them had been given twenty-five years. Nowadays they cut all cloth to the same measure–twenty-five years. “Oh, we didn’t pray for that, Ivan Denisovich,” Alyosha said earnestly. Bible in hand, he drew nearer to Shukhov till they lay face to face. “Of all earthly and mortal things Our Lord commanded us to pray only for our daily bread. ‘Give us this day our daily bread.'” “Our ration, you mean?” asked Shukhov. But Alyosha didn’t give up. Arguing more with his eyes than his tongue, he plucked at Shukhov’s sleeve, stroked his arm, and said: “Ivan Denisovich, you shouldn’t pray to get parcels or for extra stew, not for that. Things that man puts a high price on are vile in the eyes of Our Lord. We must pray about things of the spirit–that the Lord Jesus should remove the scum of anger from out hearts. . . .” Page 156: “Alyosha,” he said, withdrawing his arm and blowing smoke into his face. “I’m not against God, understand that. I do believe in God. But I don’t believe in paradise or in hell. Why do you take us for fools and stuff us with your paradise and hell stories? That’s what I don’t like.” He lay back, dropping his cigarette ash with care between the bunk frame and the window, so as to singe nothing of the captain’s below. He sank into his own thoughts. He didn’t hear Alyosha’s mumbling. “Well,” he said conclusively, “however much you pray it doesn’t shorten your stretch. You’ll sit it out from beginning to end anyhow.” “Oh, you mustn’t pray for that either,” said Alyosha, horrified. “Why do you want freedom? In freedom your last grain of faith will be choked with weeds. You should rejoice that you’re in prison. Here you have time to think about your soul. As the Apostle Paul wrote: ‘Why all these tears? Why are you trying to weaken my resolution? For my part I am ready not merely to be bound but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
For those countries not in Scandinavia or the Russian Federation, Estonia is perceived as part of Russia, or totally off the radar. Estonian soldiers who served in Iraq had a common complaint: no-one knew where they were from. Many of their American colleagues had never heard of Estonia or thought it was a mythical country. The Iraqis hadn't a clue either. One Estonian captain gave up - 'I told them I was from the moon,' he said.
Lembit Öpik (Xenophobe's Guide to the Estonians)
Domestic animals come in two sorts - workers and pets. The working kind have a very belt and braces existence and are expected to earn their keep as guard dogs, rat cats, ornamental pub fish, etc. A 'pet' in Estonian is a lemmikloom (which means 'favourite animal') and a very much part of the family.
Lembit Öpik (Xenophobe's Guide to the Estonians)
Teacher to Juku's mother: 'Your son is so thirsty of knowledge! Who does he get it from?' 'The knowledge from me, the thirst from his father.
Lembit Öpik (Xenophobe's Guide to the Estonians)
Don’t be such a baby,” Sam said to Brandt lightly. “You’ve made it through five Estonian winters. I think you can handle New York in mid-December.
Megan Crewe (Wounded Magic (Conspiracy of Magic, #2))
She commands King Hadoop and ten thousand Estonian footmen. She is unstoppable.
Robin Sloan (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, #1))
Maailm vananeb kiiremini kui mina, tundub mõnikord. Meeletu hoo asemel külm arvestus, kõigi piiride tagusest tähtsam tervislik. Karikast keeldub, sest autoga. Kuulates vaatab kella. Oh, muidugi võtab vastu ka vahel, aga teisiti, rääkides asjast, või siis iga naeratus natuke kihlvedu natuke hobuse peale, kelle sadulas kapata tõusva päikese poole - ehk teisisõnu vaid seni, kuni on jõudnud hommik - ja kui edasi, siis mööda ringi, mille keskel on veski, see, mis jahvatab aeglaselt.
Rein Raud (Unelindude rasked saapad)
Unelindude rasked saapad tallavad laugudel, neile nii tuttav rada: üksinda metsas, ainult tuul seltsiks, nagu alasti ilma kivist majata, internetita, kust saab järele vaadata. Aga neid mitte, need uned on ainult üks kord, ainult nende kord, kõike allutav - kui nüüd ei näe, noh, siis lihtsalt ei näegi: järve põhjas on kivid või on ta peegel, üks kahest.
Rein Raud (Unelindude rasked saapad)
Lihtne on lisada aastate raskest vaadist õilsale veinile tilgake solgivett. Et oleks tavaline. Et ei kohustaks. Et võiks jätkuda nagu seni. Unistused las olla mõõdetavad, lootustel las olla nimed. Suur vereülekandejaam jagab ju kõigile. Ah need hambad, need öösiti pikad ja sügelevad? Need - kas ei öeldud? - on tasuta. Nüüd on võimalik. Miks te ei kasuta?
Rein Raud (Unelindude rasked saapad)
Pettus: endale truu vaid seal, kus miski ei sega. Aga kohe, kui uksed kas või natuke - kiusatus! - avanevad, tõstab mürk veres häält, ütleb, kuhu nüüd minna. Irvitab, nagu oleksin vang ja tema minu sadistlik valvur, kogu maailm mu kong, peale kodu, mis luku taga. Noh, naeran vastu, ütlen, täna su trellid ei pea mind. Olgu nii, viipab, eks mine. Küllap näeme jälle. Nii lihtsalt sa minust lahti ei saa.
Rein Raud (Unelindude rasked saapad)