Piet Hein > Quotes

“Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No - not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping. ”
― Piet Hein

“Problems worthy of attack
prove their worth by fighting back.”
― Piet Hein, Grooks 1

“Put up in a place
where it is easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T.T.T

When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.”
― Piet Hein

“Art is solving problems that cannot be formulated before they have been solved. The shaping of the question is part of the answer.”
― Piet Hein

“A bit beyond perception's reach
I sometimes believe I see
that life is two locked boxes
each containing the other’s key.”
― Piet Hein

“Losing one glove is certainly painful,
but nothing compared to the pain,
of losing one, throwing away the other,
and finding the first one again.”
― Piet Hein

“After all, what is art? Art is the creative process and it goes through all fields. Einstein’s theory of relativity – now that is a work of art! Einstein was more of an artist in physics than on his violin.
Art is this: art is the solution of a problem which cannot be expressed explicitly until it is solved.”
― Piet Hein, Grooks 1

“THE ROAD TO WISDOM

The road to wisdom?
-- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.”
― Piet Hein

“It ought to be plain how little you gain
by getting excited and vexed.
You'll always be late for the previous train,
and always on time for the next.”
― Piet Hein

“Love while you've got love to give.
Live while you've got life to live.”
― Piet Hein

“WHAT PEOPLE MAY THINK

Some people cower
and wince and shrink,
owing to fear of
what people may think.
There is one answer
to worries like these:
people may think
what the devil they please.”
― Piet Hein

“Nature, it seems, is the popular name
for milliards and milliards and milliards
of particles playing their infinite game
of billiards and billiards and billiards.”
― Piet Hein

“MEETING THE EYE
You'll probably find
that it suits your book
to be a bit cleverer
than you look.
Observe that the easiest
method by far
is to look a bit stupider
than you are.”
― Piet Hein

“I'd like to know
what this whole show
is all about
before it's out.”
― Piet Hein, Grooks 1

“A WORD TO THE WISE

Let the world pass in its time-ridden race;
never get caught in its snare.
Remember, the only acceptable case
for being in any particular place
is having no business there.”
― Piet Hein, Grooks 1

“CANDLE WISDOM

If you knew
what you will know
when your candle
has burnt low,
it would greatly
ease your plight
while your candle
still burns bright.”
― Piet Hein

“Nobody can be lucky all the time,
so when your luck deserts you in some fashion
don't think you've been abandoned in your prime,
but rather that you're saving up your ration.”
― Piet Hein

“Knowing what
Thou knowest not
Is in a sense
Omniscience.”
― Piet Hein

“TIMING TOAST
Grook on how to char for yourself

There's an art of knowing when.
Never try to guess.
Toast until it smokes and then
twenty seconds less.”
― Piet Hein

“We ought to live each day as though
it were our last day here below.
But if I did, alas, I know
it would have killed me long ago.”
― Piet Hein

“Those who always
know what’s best
are
a universal pest.”
― Piet Hein

“Naive you are
if you believe
life favours those
who aren't naive.”
― Piet Hein

“What Love Is Like

Love is like
a pineapple,
sweet and
undefinable.”
― Piet Hein

“THE CURE FOR EXHAUSTION

Sometimes, exhausted
with toil and endeavour,
I wish I could sleep
for ever and ever;
but then this reflection
my longing allays:
I shall be doing it
one of these days.”
― Piet Hein

“THE WISDOM OF THE SPHERES

How instructive
is a star!
It can teach us
from afar
just how small
each other are.”
― Piet Hein

“MAKING AN EFFORT
Our so-called limitations, I believe,
apply to faculties we don't apply.
We don't discover what we can't achieve
until we make an effort not to try.”
― Piet Hein

“A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIP

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.”
― Piet Hein

“Lovers meander in prose and rhyme,
trying to say-
for the thousandth time-
what's easier done than said.”
― Piet Hein

“ASTRO-GYMNASTICS

Go on a starlit night,
stand on your head,
leave your feet dangling
outwards into space,
and let the starry
firmament you tread
be, for the moment,
your elected base.

Feel Earth's colossal weight
of ice and granite,
of molten magma,
water, iron, and lead;
and briefly hold
this strangely solid planet
balanced upon
your strangely solid head.”
― Piet Hein

“It isn't enough to exasperate others. You have to remember to gladden yourself!”
― Piet Hein