— — — defining sauna — — —
“Implacable dry heat interrupted by waves of löyly is the essence of sauna” — Michael Nordskog, The Opposite of Cold
“The ideal sauna is a small building made of logs, set near a lakeshore, facing toward the sunset.” — Bernhard Hillila, The Sauna Is
“A sauna is a very simple thing. The simpler it is, the more you are likely to enjoy it and the better it will be for you.” — Aarne (sauna host to Caskie Stinnett), Grand and Private Pleasures
“The answer is not a simple one. The word sauna now appears in American dictionaries, but the description seems to be mis-leading, at least in part. This fact is explained and explored in the chapter that deals with"New Words" in this book. So it was not enough to simply suggest that the dictionary gives a full explanation of the sauna. It does not. The sauna cannot be explained in one simple dictionary paragraph.” — SC Olin, Sauna The Way to Health
— — — slow sauna — — —
“The sauna was not built for saving time but for spending it well.” — Bernhard Hillila, The Sauna Is
“I felt that we had extended ourselves so far in the direction of convenience that the historical and practical link had finally snapped. […] Now I wanted an authentic sauna.” — Caskie Stinnett, Grand and Private Pleasures
“Here in Finland, we think that the sauna is of enormous physical benefit but that benefit depends entirely upon your ability to relax yourself while you are taking the heat. […] Relaxation is everything, that why we discourage conversation, singing, or whistling in the sauna. Shut out the outside world and its problems.” Aarne (sauna host to Caskie Stinnett), Grand and Private Pleasures
“The less mental activity there is, the more refreshed you will feel when you come out.” -Aarne (sauna host to Caskie Stinnett), Grand and Private Pleasures
— — — the undiluted sauna practice — — —
“Our genius for efficiency and oversimplification may lead to an adulteration of sauna’s time-honored customs and benefits.” — Cecil Ellis in the preface to H.J. Viherjuuri’s Sauna: The Finnish Bath
“All that talk about sweating out your poison and cleansing the blood is nonsense. Let’s not claim virtues for the sauna that it doesn’t possess.” -Aarne (sauna host to Caskie Stinnett), Grand and Private Pleasures
“With the American penchant for merchandising there is, however, a danger that in our land the concept of sauna will be stretched badly out of shape to include sauna belts, sauna facial masks, sauna tubs, sauna cabinets, sauna tents, and steam rooms of all kinds! If the product involves heat, the ad man gets a sudden perspiration and says, “Let’s call it sauna! That’s an ‘in’ term.” Such “saunas” lose something in the translation. The term “sauna” is properly applied only to baths in which the entire body receives dry heat and steam. It is to be hoped that the rapid spread and increased popularity will not lead to a changed, misdirected pattern.”-Bernhard Hillila, The Sauna Is
“Modern refinement such as marble pools, enamel bathtubs, showers, and nickel pipes have no place in the sauna. The inside of the bath house must not even be oiled, timber and rough board being the best materials for it. A painted or oiled surface does not absorb the moisture from the air, and finished wood cannot allow the necessary amount of air to pass through the walls.” — H.J. Viherjuuri, Sauna: The Finnish Bath
“The acme of the sauna experience is achieved when the snow is replaced by a dip into a lake and when one can sit outside in the altogether, dried by unpolluted breezes.” — Bernhard Hillila, The Sauna Is
“There is a tenseness and tautness in the everyday, work-a-day world of Americans, in the hustle-bustle daily drive of making a living. […] It is my contention that Americans should learn to relax more, calm down, quit fighting nature, stop premature aging of the body and try to eliminate nervous breakdowns. One of the best ways to achieve this is to get into the weekly or semi-weekly, leisurely sauna habit.” — S.C. Olin, Sauna: The Way to Health
“My sauna cabin is primitive, one step removed from the first excavations in the hillsides of Finland. I wanted it that way for I felt it must be close to the earth, so much a part of the natural environment that simple values would not be lost… Simplicity is the keynote, but when steam rises from the stones and the sprays of steam and give off their fragrance, the sauna comes into its own.” -Sigurd Olson, Runes of the North
— — — sauna & sex — — —
“While sauna bath by definition should be a sensual experience, it doesn’t follow that it should be a sexual one.” — Bernhard Hillila, The Sauna Is
“You know nothing about saunas in America. You speak of them as though they were great sexual adventures. Here they are not sexual at all. They are strictly family affairs.” Aarne (sauna host to Caskie Stinnett), Grand and Private Pleasures
“Pornographers have a way of sullying all that they touch. They’ve done their best (or worst) to cheapen sex and make of it something less than it is. Of late, they’ve been attempting to make something tawdry of that venerable institution known as the sauna.” Doug Baker in the foreword to John Virtanen’s The Finnish Sauna
“Blessed are the pure in heart,for they shall see nothing dirty in an unclothed body.” — Bernhard Hillila, The Sauna Is
“It is not nakedness that gives the sense of immodesty, the modifying the nakedness is what does it.” Mark Twain, omitted passage from A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain’s Notebooks & Journals, Vol. 2
— — — sauna delight — — —
“The feeling of well being which follows the cold dip is undoubtedly one of the most delightful sensations which the human body can experience. For this reason, jumping into the lake can become almost a passion, and many sauna enthusiasts can take as many as 5 dips in one sauna visit.” — H.J. Viherjuuri, Sauna: The Finnish Bath
“In the warm and dark embrace of the sauna, people become calm and sensitized, they open up and even talk about difficult matters to those near and dear.” — Harri Hautajärvi, Villas Saunas in Finland
“You gotta sauna when you wanna.” — Jeff Pyzyk
“Some look up and wish that they could be someplace warm. Others look down and are grateful to be on their way to someplace hot.” — Glenn Auerbach
— — — doing sauna right — — —
“to be cleansed to the nth degree, one should raise the sauna temperature at least to the 175th degree” — Bernhard Hillila, The Sauna Is
“The time spent outside is as important in the overall enjoyment of as the time spent inside the sauna.” — Allan Konya, International Handbook of Finnish Sauna
“As in all things, it is just a matter of knowing what you really want and paying attention long enough to find out how to get it.” “You are not the first member of the race to travel this road. Listen carefully to what the old travelers have to say and you will be surprised at your own speed.” — Robert Farrar Capon
— — — wood-burning sauna — — —
“Without the smell of smoke there is no real sauna atmosphere.” — H.J. Viherjuuri, Sauna: The Finnish Bath
“The slight smell of wood fire, the sound of flames devouring birch logs and the gentle heat given off cannot be surpassed by any other method of heating a sauna.” — Bert Jalasjaa, The Art of Sauna Building